BT – Brochure 2019

BT Enterprise: Beyond Limits P ROJ E C T PA RT N E R S

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BT Enterprise: Beyond Limits WRITTEN BY

Andrew Woods PRODUCED BY Andy Lloyd PHOTOGRAPHY BY A n d y Ty l e r V I D E O B Y Tre t t F i l m s

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We speak to John Vickery, BT’s Principal Technology Partner for Enterprise, who explains how the company is harnessing innovation in enabling digital transformation…

T

he rapid advance of technology has disrupted virtually every industry you can think of and yet the core aims of any

enterprise have remained the same. ‘How can we improve our bottom line, sell more product, receive better insights and make better strategic decisions? How can we improve productivity?’ These concerns are unchanging although the landscape is shifting dramatically.

BT’s Enterprise business offers real and tangible outcomes for its customers amid this turbulent digital disruption. Echoing the new company-wide strapline, John Vickery, BT’s Principal Technology Partner for Enterprise explains: “We’re going beyond limits to deliver digital transformation for our customers. AI, IoT, data, cloud, edge compute; we bring all of that together into a single ecosystem, through 5G, to deliver the technological capabilities that our customers need to achieve their outcomes.”

BT’s Enterprise unit is shifting its business from being seen as a provider of connectivity products such as broadband, ethernet and SIM cards – to a business that can really deliver and assure business outcomes at a time when many businesses don’t necessarily have the confidence to invest in new technology. “We bring the whole proposition to give them 4

BT

John Vickery, BT’s Principal Technology Partner for Enterprise

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T RANS FORM ING M OBILE N ETW ORK ECONOM ICS

WEB SCALE AGILITY COST EFFICIENCY

5G CORE

VIRTUALIZED RAN

vEPC

NEUTRAL HOST

E N T E R P R I S E LT E

NFV/SDN

mavenir.com

In the telecommunications industry,

What is required is a move to

ing on with Mavenir for Neutral Hosting solution.

virtualisation technology is a tre-

the next level of implementing

mendous disruptor. It is bringing a

true cloud-native applications

new way of doing business which up

which have the characteristics to

tive and virtualised radio and core

until now was defined by major web

be open and allow their life cycle

solution, BT is able to “slice� the

players such as Google and Amazon

to be automated as well as having

Mavenir solution and provide a

which had embraced virtualisation

the elasticity to perform scaling

single architecture and infrastruc-

much earlier.

for more dynamic cases.

ture, coverage and capabilities to

Mavenir lays its foundation on

There is a plethora of new

By utilising a proper cloud na-

multiple operators: each operator

Virtualisation and it is the indus-

software suppliers which bring

will have its own slice and will be

try’s only 100% software

innovation and new approach-

able to run its traffic without any

end- -to-end provider with its

es to CI/CD (Continuous Inte-

impact on one another.

cloud native approach.

gration and Continuous Devel-

The separation, made possible

opment) and with virtualisation,

by the virtualisation and network

about Virtual Machines or Con-

they are now a viable solution

slicing, is so effective that each

tainers, is bringing agility and web

for operators like BT.

operator can run different soft-

Virtualisation, whether we talk

scale by not only improving the

Mavenir is definitively among

ware and capabilities depending

way applications are deployed

those and have the unique char-

on their offering while being able

and automating procedures, but

acteristic of being end to end

to differentiate despite using a

also by impacting the economic

and compete with total solutions

common infrastructure.

model of telecommunications.

from core services to access.

Mavenir aims to transform the

The cloud native approach

The solution has proved to be extremely interesting and much

network economic model for Mo-

provides new architectural

more effective than some of the

bile Operators, by utilising virtu-

solutions where processing can

traditional solutions which have

alisation, which means providing

be deployed much closer to the

been adopted in mobile Network

software for standard Commer-

access and open up new use

Sharing scenarios worldwide and

cial Off the Shelves hardware and

cases, especially for enterprises

across the UK.

based on Open Interfaces like in

in which 5G is richer and opens

the case of OpenRAN.

up more opportunities.

Until now, operators have begun to embrace the early stages of virtualisation, but in most cases

There is no 5G without virtualisation and this is a fact.

In order to provide flexible and

A new era has arrived and finally telco operators will be able to benefit from the web scale agility of the aforementioned major web players. Virtualisation is here to

they stopped their path by only

agile solutions, we need to be

stay and is profoundly changing

migrating software onto servers

able to scale and throw out the

our industry: Mavenir is leading

in Data Centres. This is mainly

old legacy which is slowing the

in cloud native solutions and is

due to a reliance on traditional

transformation. A very interesting

here to impact and transform the

Network Equipment Vendors.

case is the one that BT is work-

mobile networks.

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that confidence,” Vickery explains, the week following BT’s massive ‘Beyond Limits’ rebrand. “And if we need to, we’d love to develop a proposition where we can actually commit and assure those outcomes on an SLA (service level agreement) basis.”

Vickery is the Principal Technology Partner for 5G, edge compute, private networks, and all the new innovative, disruptive technologies helping BT’s Enterprise business deliver new outcomes for its customers. Vickery looks after this portfolio of innovation, which 5G brings together into a single ecosystem to deliver the technology capabilities that its customers demand; and there are plenty of them. BT’s enterprise clients range from massive corporates all the way through to SMEs, microbusinesses and sole traders.

“We’ve got 1.2 million business custom-

“We’re a team of experts and consult-

ers to speak to, something like 700,000

ants who go out and work with custom-

SMEs, corporates, major corporates,

ers to get a deep understanding of their

public sector, defence, Scottish salmon

requirements,” says Vickery. “We’ve got

farms, you name it. There is a huge range

a specialist who looks at utilities, and

of businesses.”

someone who looks at manufacturing

The CTIO (chief technology and

and production. It gives us a meaning-

information office) holds a unique

ful insight into where they’re looking

place within BT, with one in each line

to technology to deliver their business

of its business; Global, Consumer and

objectives such as improving productiv-

Enterprise.

ity, introducing automation and cutting

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BT

with technology. “At the moment, a lot of people talk about 5G campus networks and how to build out in places like airports and ports. We’ve worked on some really innovative projects with costs. They’re looking to partners to

them (Belfast Harbour),” says Vickery.

give them the answers because they’re

“We delivered the fastest 5G network

wondering how to pick the right tech-

into the harbour that we’ve deployed to

nology. We’re the kind of technology

date. Within six weeks we had five carri-

business that gives them the answers,

ers of 4G and 5G over the top. We’re

as well as the confidence, to invest in the

delivering ultrafast speeds of 700 800

right areas.”

megabits per second to enable their

Belfast Harbour is a 2,000-acre port

engineers to do crane maintenance

that also houses university campuses,

routines through augmented reality

museums and filming locations, with

headsets. Now, all of their workflows

a real ambition to drive and innovate

are loaded on software working with our w w w.bt.com

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partner Ubimax. If they come across a

cloud help you? And what we’re trying

problem or there’s a fault, they can use

to do is build a proposition for those

voice commands to get immediately

customers so they can pick from a

connected to a remote expert. It helps to

modular set of capabilities that we

set themselves up for the future so they

can then package up into a solution.

can increase their productivity for these

Security, data sovereignty through

kinds of engineering tasks.”

to reductions in backhaul costs and

BT was the first company to launch

lowering latency - every customer

5G services in the UK in May this year.

needs something different. We work

“Many customers want to find out how

with each customer to understand

they can leverage 5G,” says Vickery.

their specific needs and make sure

“It’s about that dialogue. What do you

we’ve got our proposition, and the hori-

need? How can edge compute help

zontal capabilities, to support them.”

you? How can AI help you? How can

Healthcare is a big focus area for BT’s

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“ We’ve got 1.2 million business customers to speak to, something like 700,000 SMEs, corporates, major corporates, public sector, defence, Scottish salmon farms, you name it” — J O H N V I C K E R Y, B T ’ S P R I N C I PA L T E C H N O L O G Y PA R T N E R F O R E N T E R P R I S E

Enterprise business which is currently

diagnostics and clinical care to patients

acting as a service integrator to one of

remotely over 5G, without the need for

its NHS customers. “One of the things

hospital conveyances, then not only do

we’ve been looking at in Birmingham

you improve patient care, productiv-

is a connected ambulance. We were

ity and reduce waiting times but you

the first in the UK to deliver a 5G use

also remove the traffic on the roads and

case for ambulances where you have

improve the environment.”

a trained sonographer in the hospital

Vickery is very passionate when it

guiding a paramedic who isn’t trained

comes to 5G. “5G is actually going to

in sonography. Through the use of a

help people save lives,” he says. “We put

haptic glove, the sonographer within

a 360-degree video inside an ambu-

the hospital can control a joystick and

lance so the diagnosticians and the

that gives the paramedic signals in the

clinicians in the hospital are able to

hand so they know where to move the

feel like they’re in the ambulance and

scanner. If you can start bringing the

can see everything around them. Now,

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BT

doing that with 360-degree video and

imagery and a close-up camera all

transmitting all that data in real time is

embedded and accessible from within

quite complex. So, we’re working with

the immersive reality in real time. It

a partner called Voysys who ensure the

really is a fantastic demonstration of

immersive experience for the remote

what 5G can do for healthcare. We’ve

diagnostician is as accurate as it can be.

also been working with Ericsson and

When you are interacting with paramed-

Kings College London in that trial, and

ics in an ambulance and guiding their

Ericsson played a big role on the devel-

actions, network latency needs to be

opment side particularly around the

consistently low which is why 5G is so

platform that underpins the technology.

important for this type of use case, as it

We also had fantastic support from our

enhances the interactive experience and

Applied Research team at BT’s labs in

ensures content delivery in real time.

Adastral Park (Suffolk).”

The remote clinician also has access to patient records, vital signs, ultrasound

“The research team are real asset for us and the innovation and investment w w w.bt.com

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CONTENTS

in R&D from this team is just stagger-

a control room,” he explains. “These

ing. We are the 3rd largest tech inves-

cameras combined will need one giga-

tor in research and development in the

bit per second on the uplink, which is

UK spending £2.5 billion over the past

massive. Only 5G can provide that. This

5 years. We have over 5,000 patents

isn’t a kind of use case where, if you had

in our portfolio and last year alone we

a really good 4G signal, it would work.

filed 103 new inventions. I love sharing

This is a disruptive use case, which

this message with our customers as it

needs pure 5G to make it work. So, you

really demonstrates our commitment

need a consistent latency of 18 milli-

to innovation and positions BT as a real

seconds. You’re actually taking people

forward thinking and innovative tech-

out of a dangerous situation; by climb-

nology partner.”

ing up to the crane every morning.

Vickery was in Zurich recently, speak-

You’re pulling people out of the process

ing to a company called ZPMC, who are

and centralising your operations while

undertaking remote crane operations.

increasing your productivity. You could

“You need 18 high definition cameras to

have a crane operator who can be work-

be able to operate a crane remotely from

ing two or three cranes from a control w w w. b t. co m

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YEAR FOUNDED

1969

REGION HQ

London, UK

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room and that increases productivity and the bottom line. We’re looking at the horizontal capabilities that have applications across multiple verticals so we can make it bespoke and collaborate with our customers to make it work for them. But the capabilities we invest in and develop and build, we can use over a whole range of sectors. That’s really where the strength lies, in the scale of BT.” Partnerships are hugely important to BT and Vickery acknowledges that it can’t deliver every outcome itself.

“We’re very strong in connectivity.

Everybody can appreciate that. We’ve got great managed service capability. We can do the whole end-toend orchestration piece. Where we’re moving into is around the compute, the cloud and the edge. And so, we want great application developers and device partners to be able to plug into that ecosystem. We want to create an edge ecosystem where application partners can very easily distribute their software to our customers. We’re really keen to work with partners in that space.”

One of the companies BT is working with, from a research perspective, is MobiledgeX. “They have got the ability to deliver globally orchestrated edge cloud, so it makes it very easy for 18

BT

“ We’re looking at the horizontal capabilities that have applications across multiple verticals so we can make it bespoke and collaborate with our customers to make it work for them” — J O H N V I C K E R Y, B T ’ S P R I N C I PA L T E C H N O L O G Y PA R T N E R F O R E N T E R P R I S E

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application developers to distribute their

leading 5G network operator, with 5G

software at a global level, working with

in more places than any other provider.

partners like BT to provide all the under-

When our customers ask us, ‘Do I need

lying connectivity and service integra-

5G in my building? Do I need Wi-Fi 6?’,

tion. And that’s a really interesting prop-

we just talk about what the differences

osition. Some of the other things we’re

and benefits are. Where convergence

looking at are around convergence. We

takes us is in using both. You can use

always get asked this question: ‘Do I

Wi-Fi and 5G, to get the best experi-

need 5G in-building? Do I need Wi-Fi 6?’

ence possible on that device through

Obviously, we’re a huge Wi-Fi business,

fixed wireless convergence. The innova-

huge Wi-Fi provider. We’re also the UK’s

tion we’re doing with organisations like

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BT

“We’re going beyond connectivity.

We’re helping give our customers confidence around trust, identity and security; ultimately protecting the UK and the citizens of the UK” — J O H N V I C K E R Y, B T ’ S P R I N C I PA L T E C H N O L O G Y PA R T N E R F O R E N T E R P R I S E

Casa Systems in our core network, will

called neutral host. “There is a model for

provide a much better experience. Your

in-building connectivity which is expe-

phone will be able to switch seamlessly

riencing exponential growth and it’s

between Wi-Fi and 5G without you

called neutral host,” Vickery explains.

having to do anything. It’s all about the

“Let’s say that Lesley owns a corner

user experience. We just want to give

street café with no mobile signal at

our customers a solution that works

all, and all her customers start going

out the box, to deliver the best possible

to Jean’s café down the road who has

experience wherever they are.”

perfect 4G on every network. Now,

A really interesting area for Enterprise is linked to its Wholesale business. It’s

Lesley wants 4G because it impacts her bottom line, but she can’t discriminate w w w.bt.com

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which network her customers are on;

her broadband to give the people in her

some of them will be on EE, some of

cafe 4G or 5G connectivity whatever

them will be on Vodafone, O2, or Three.

network they’re on. Now that is not an

Well BT Wholesale, which is part of

easy thing to do, but there is a group

Enterprise has a great track record of

called JOTS, which is the Joint Operator

providing backhaul connectivity for

Technical Specifications forum and

the UK mobile operators on a whole-

they write the shared specifications for

sale basis, and obviously that capabil-

multi operator systems in the UK, and

ity lends itself very well to this concept

we’re working very closely with them

of neutral host. Ultimately, what we

to innovate on new disruptive ways of

want to deliver is a radio for Lesley’s

achieving that goal. One of the part-

corner cafe that she can just plug into

ners we’re working with is Mavenir and

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BT

they’re really pioneering the neutral

network end-to-end, but they can

host model for virtualised RAN; part of

deliver that network over common

the open RAN standards.”

infrastructure, thus enabling them

BT recently joined ORAN Alliance,

to get into locations which would

which supports the move towards

have previously been outside of their

open interfaces for mobile and neutral

budget. And even better, it enables

host; probably the first and the most

these business customers, where

compelling use case for virtualised

they’ve got the public coming in and out

RAN. “It means that operators don’t

freely, to deliver in-building connectiv-

need to work together on shared

ity at an affordable price.”

systems. With virtualised RAN, each operator can have a logically separated

Security and trust form a significant component of BT’s portfolio and they w w w.bt.com

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The Enterprise Chief Technology and Information Officer is Fotis Karonis who is also a Managing Director and 5G Executive Advisor. “We are absolutely delivering in our vision to take our business customers beyond limits with us,” Karonis explains. “This means working with fantastic partners to drive real business outcomes that not only benefit our customers but the UK as whole. In May this year, we were first to launch 5G in the UK, with 5G in more places across the region than any other operator, and we’re continuing to invest in providing our customers the best network across the UK. It is our continued leadership in reliable mobile and fixed networks, combined with our team of experts, that positions us with a unique ability to deliver the most innovative technology and unparalleled user experiences as we move towards a digital future.”

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BT

are proud to be market leaders in cybersecurity. “We are a really trusted brand and I think that’s important for our customers, especially when they’ve got critical data they need to move around.”

Vickery is certainly passionate about the innovation BT can produce for its clients. “CTIO is one of the most agile teams in the business. We’re a small team, more like a start-up and people love coming to work and thinking, ‘Actually, I’m doing something no one’s ever done before.’ We’re delivering world firsts.

We’re co-creating, getting deeper relationships with our customers while delivering better experiences for our colleagues. We’re really engaged and motivated to come to work. But ultimately, it’s about what we deliver to the UK as a whole. We’re going beyond connectivity. We’re helping give our customers confidence around trust, identity and security; ultimately protecting the UK and the citizens of the UK. I think that’s what going ‘Beyond Limits’ is all about.”

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W W W. B T P LC . CO M