0:00

Patrick Thibodeau: There are plenty of smart people in this country, tons of them. And the question has always been how do

0:04

we get them to the best jobs? The CIA knew how to do that. A

0:08

lot of private employers didn't. Antone Gonsalves: Hi, and welcome to Tech News this week.

0:15

I'm your host tech Charlie and news director Antonio Gonzalez.

0:19

Today we'll discuss the latest product news from Juniper

0:23

Networks, sales forces, AI plans and tech layoffs that don't seem

0:29

to be slowing down. First up is Juniper. Gartner rates Juniper

0:34

Networks, a leader in the wired and wireless land

0:39

infrastructure, but they also joined Cisco youlet, Packard

0:43

enterprises, Aruba, and Extreme Networks in that Gartner Magic

0:49

Quadrant. Juniper this week introduced new technology that

0:54

it calls a campus fabric workflow here to explain what

0:59

that is, is Bob Lambert and analysts with tech targets

1:03

Enterprise Strategy Group. Welcome, Bob. Thanks for

1:06

joining. Thanks, Unknown: Anton. Great to be here.

1:09

Antone Gonsalves: All right. So what is a campus fabric

1:13

workflow? And why should our viewers care about it?

1:17

Unknown: Yeah, it's a good question. I think for a lot of

1:19

time, there's been a lot of fabric that has been deployed in

1:22

the data center. And what you're seeing here is Juniper being

1:27

able to do a couple of things, one, taking that and extending

1:29

that fabric out into the campus environments. As you know, right

1:33

now, there's a lot of reimagining of campus networks,

1:36

people are trying to figure out what hybrid work how to best

1:39

deploy solutions. And this is an example twofold of them trying

1:42

to take something that's typically maybe a little bit

1:45

more sophisticated and complicated like this, these

1:48

fabrics, the EVP and VX LAN fabrics, you know, layer two,

1:51

layer three, and simplify them. So the workflow is basically

1:55

simplified, just down to three steps to be able to have

2:00

organizations create a fabric in their campus environment. And

2:03

they've done that through what we refer to as the mystification

2:06

process. So they've taken the technology they got from Miss

2:11

Ai, and they are slowly in court, I don't know if I should

2:14

take, that's probably not even the right word slowly, they've

2:16

been aggressively deploying that technology across the rest of

2:20

the WAN across the wired infrastructure, as you're seeing

2:22

here to enable organizations to drive greater operational

2:26

efficiencies, and to be able to accelerate troubleshooting and

2:29

things like that. So essentially, what you're seeing is a new fabric environment for the campus and simplified

2:35

deployment, so they can accelerate it and realize the

2:38

benefits faster. Antone Gonsalves: Okay, when you see extend the fabric, they're

2:41

extending the fabric from the data center to the wireless,

2:45

Unknown: well, it's going to be basically this, they already

2:47

have a fabric in the data center. So when I say they're

2:49

extending it, they're, they're nailing the the campus

2:52

environment now to have that fabric environment is, you know,

2:56

in a very easily consumable way. So typically, right when you're

2:59

building out fabrics, that would require a lot of thought and process and testing and so forth. And by leveraging the

3:04

experience that they have, and building fabrics, and also the

3:08

integration of the mist AI, it really helps organizations to

3:12

simplify that deployment of a fabric environment within the

3:17

campus. Antone Gonsalves: And along with that announcement, Juniper also

3:20

introduced in what they're calling an AI driven cloud

3:24

operators switch is something new hardware for the E X series.

3:29

So is there anything particularly special about the

3:32

hardware? Unknown: Well, again, it's that that mystification process where

3:36

they're adding the intelligence into that switch line, this is

3:39

the latest in their, their ie X series portfolio. And what

3:44

they're doing again, is they're targeting it for those those

3:46

campus environments. And, you know, so typically, you know, 10

3:51

Gig distribution, or maybe even a small core device for the

3:55

campus, depending on on how organizations want to set up

3:58

their environment. But like I said, that ability to optimize

4:01

it with the mist AI enables that reduced deployment times, you

4:05

know, things like zero touch provisioning. So it can be

4:07

quickly and easily deployed a lot of automated workflows, and

4:10

then for the day to pieces, that accelerated troubleshooting for

4:14

the devices. So, you know, event correlation, be proactive,

4:19

anomaly detection, things like that. And also, I believe with

4:23

this one, they're also going to enable the micro segmentation.

4:26

So especially for organizations looking at deploying IoT devices

4:29

in the campus, it's going to allow you enable you to run

4:33

those group based policies with micro segmentation. So you can

4:37

fully isolate your IoT devices as well.

4:39

Antone Gonsalves: A couple of things that Gartner mentioned about Juniper is one, they're expensive. They they did ding

4:45

them on on pricing. They also mentioned that companies that

4:50

prefer on premises management software, they wouldn't get the

4:55

same capabilities from Juniper as cloud based pretty much all

5:00

vendors have cloud based management. So, you know,

5:04

quickly if you can companies that want on premises management

5:08

software, are they kind of out of luck right now, in terms of

5:12

getting the same capabilities? Well, yeah, the big

5:15

Unknown: difference is, in order to enable that intelligence, you

5:17

need to have a source of data to back that up. So the transition

5:21

and networking, we've seen a lot of vendors move to cloud based

5:24

network management, so they can incorporate all that data and

5:27

leverage it to drive their algorithms. And to improve their

5:30

AI insights into that solution. Some organizations will allow

5:33

both, you can have cloud you can have on prem, typically, if you

5:36

are going to have on prem and you know, obviously, there might

5:39

be some lag in the devices or the algorithms and things like

5:43

that being updated. And that's going to be predicated on how

5:46

often the customers want it to be updated. Right? If it's in

5:48

the cloud, it's as fast as the back end is moving. And as fast

5:52

as the developers are moving to add and implement new technology

5:55

there. And then it's automatically implemented, right? So all that lifecycle, patching upgrading is all done

5:59

for you. If you have it on premises, then you're going to

6:02

have to decide when you want to upgrade and how often so there

6:05

could be a lag between the two. But like I said, the big driver

6:09

behind this cloud based management is so that they can

6:12

get that data so they can derive those intelligent insights.

6:19

Antone Gonsalves: Okay, next up is is Salesforce, you know,

6:22

lately, it seems that just about every large tech company is

6:27

launching a generative AI service that has either home

6:32

grown or uses chat GP t this week, Salesforce said it would

6:39

tap chat GPT, which is developed by open AI to help salespeople

6:45

customer service agents and marketers get more information

6:50

for doing their job. Here to explain what Salesforce is up to

6:56

is our AI reporter tick targets AI reporter as to reach out, so

7:03

what is Salesforce up to this chat GBT announcement?

7:07

Esther Ajao: Yeah, so they're doing what everybody else is

7:09

doing, which is they're kind of I don't want to say cashing in.

7:13

But they join in this ol chat GPT generative AI movement

7:17

that's coming on. So they're jumping into GPT. Margaret, like

7:19

everybody else, I assume, or Nova, like, like, basically

7:22

everybody is doing it. And what, obviously Salesforce has a long

7:27

history of using AI. And so now they just put an AI into the

7:30

product, Slack and whatnot. And so it's just basically they

7:36

going along with the ride, just like Antone Gonsalves: everybody else. Yeah, I mean, I thought it

7:39

was interesting that they already have AI, like, a lot of

7:42

these companies are already using machine learning or AI.

7:46

And they had a product called Einstein AI. Yeah. And now

7:50

they've changed the name, the Einstein GP p, is there. Is

7:55

there any difference between the old Einstein and in the new

8:00

Weinstein? Esther Ajao: Well, now it's like, you're gonna have this

8:03

Einstein help with supercharging and LPK capabilities, it will be

8:08

helpful and anticipating taxpayers sales, people, just

8:12

making sales software work faster, and making them more

8:15

intuitive. So basically, it's just once again, get it into

8:19

that generative AI market, and helping salespeople work fast,

8:24

smarter, and maybe faster, but just making it more effective

8:29

and more efficient. Antone Gonsalves: And I didn't say when they're gonna release

8:32

this new version of Einstein, Einstein GPT. So it's, it's kind

8:37

of a wait and see at this point as to what they'll actually

8:40

deliver. I mean, are you confident that Salesforce will,

8:44

will give us AI as the as promise?

8:48

Esther Ajao: I mean, based on like, obviously, the people I've

8:51

spoken to my editor, as well as my colleague, Mary Ryan, and I

8:55

were confident as, as anybody is, and what these vendors will

8:59

do, you know, it's just a wait and see approach. Basically, we

9:03

all vendors, but their partner at open AI, and we know that

9:07

open AI has been successful in the past. Obviously, open AI is

9:11

successful as making things that people really care about. And so

9:14

with this partnership, I think they will be successful and I am

9:17

confident, but you know, you never know of vendors.

9:23

Antone Gonsalves: Right, finally, it's a scary. It's a

9:26

scary time to be working for a tech company. You know, since

9:31

October, the global tech industry has cut 137,000 jobs

9:37

companies that have sent workers packing include Amazon, Google

9:43

owner, alphabet, Microsoft and meta which owns Facebook and

9:47

Instagram. Analysts say the tech industry could shed more jobs in

9:52

the coming weeks. You know, here to explain why tech workers are

9:56

being sent to the unemployment line is tech targets. A

10:00

workplace reporter Patrick Thibodeau. So they'll tell me

10:04

the layoffs solely a result of over hiring before the economic

10:09

downturn. Are there other factors at play?

10:12

Patrick Thibodeau: That's a major reason, right? COVID clearly accelerated. The idea that we're going to move to a

10:18

digital economy, and, but not at the pace that many of these

10:22

firms plan for. But let's put this in perspective. Let's see

10:25

what's really going on here. I mean, Microsoft increase its

10:28

workforce in two years, from 163,000 to 221,000. Globally,

10:34

they cut 10,000. So they're still net gain is significant.

10:39

Now, the second reason, yeah, sure, there are fears of

10:41

recession fears that the debt ceiling may blow up, there's

10:44

fears that, you know, all kinds of bad things can happen. But

10:47

third, and this is a little more hard to quantify. But it's real,

10:51

that automation and improvements are helping, for instance, in

10:54

recruiting HR has been hit hard by a lot of tech firms. And

10:57

there is some thinking out there. And a lot of theories out

11:00

there that, you know, the use of AI, which is used to sort

11:03

candidates is reducing the need for recruiters and robotics

11:09

process automation, that's still very real thing. You don't hear

11:11

about it too much. But it's very real. And it's it's being used

11:15

more and more to manage finance and supply chains and things

11:18

like that. And that's reducing the need for workers and forth.

11:21

This is a little more forward looking. But we've gotten very

11:25

used to working remotely. And why does remotely stop at

11:29

national borders, right? It's as easy to hire somebody in Canada

11:33

today, as it is in UK or Argentina or Brazil, wherever.

11:36

And there are a lot of firms that have popped up. I've been

11:38

watching them in the past couple of years that specialize in

11:42

making it easier to hire remotely internationally. So I

11:46

think we're gonna see more of that. Antone Gonsalves: So does that mean that net, there'll be fewer

11:53

the BF be less need for workers, so more unemployment, the tech

11:57

industry or some kind of a stabilization?

12:00

Patrick Thibodeau: I think we have to deal with the fact that

12:02

the world is globalizing and it has been globalizing for a

12:05

while. It's been globalization in terms of services, service

12:08

providers, right Infosys and other offshore outsourcing

12:11

companies. But now, any firm has the ability to say, Where's our

12:16

labor pool, and they say our labor pool is international. And

12:20

so they not only think about hiring somebody from Connecticut

12:22

or California, I think about hiring somebody from India or

12:25

the Philippines or United Kingdom.

12:28

Antone Gonsalves: I mean, I would think that the layoffs in

12:30

the tech industry would be good news for like manufacturers,

12:35

retailers, healthcare institutions, you know, non tech

12:39

enterprises, because now they've got a larger pool of engineers

12:43

to hire. Patrick Thibodeau: Totally. Alright, let's put this in

12:45

perspective, tech industry hiring or tech employment,

12:49

right, has risen for 24 straight months, until January went down

12:54

15,000. Now there are about 5.5 million people employed in tech

12:59

jobs. The number, the number, the amount of shrinkage in the

13:02

actual tech labor force is not even a rounding error, or is a

13:05

rounding error. It's very few people, the top employers right

13:08

now. And this is according to comp TAS analysis, or finance,

13:12

like Capital One and city defense like Lockheed Martin and

13:16

consulting firms like Deloitte. So yes, there's a lot of hiring

13:19

going on. It's just not buying the Googles and the Microsoft's

13:23

at this moment, but those companies are going to ramp up

13:25

again, for sure. Antone Gonsalves: Sure. And I would assume that those other

13:29

enterprises, the the wages are competitive, to bring in the

13:34

talent. And if you talk about, you know, talent in general,

13:39

then it it's it's hard to find, you know, the universities

13:43

aren't pumping out enough engineers. So the companies, the

13:49

tech companies that are laying off people today, do you expect

13:54

him to have trouble to fill positions later on when the

13:57

economy turns around which you will eventually?

14:01

Patrick Thibodeau: Absolutely not, for a couple of reasons.

14:03

But let's go back in history a little right. In 1941, right,

14:07

the British government was, you know, was under attack by

14:10

Germany, right. So they hired the top academic people like

14:13

Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence, the

14:16

father of computing, father of basically everything, but they

14:19

also hired people who did well on cryptographic crossword

14:23

puzzles. People who won contests. This happens today.

14:26

Our our national security agency and our CIA have long hired

14:31

people based on their skills. Edward Snowden, right. Everybody

14:34

knows him. He's the best well known example, he dropped out of

14:37

high school here in a gap and a few community college courses.

14:41

He was hired by the CIA, CIA, and we all know that he's

14:44

interviewed. There's a remarkably intelligent person.

14:47

They know how to hire people with skills. For too long. The

14:51

big tech companies were hiring out MIT, Stanford, Carnegie

14:55

Mellon, they're chasing degrees, but there's been a whole shift

14:58

in thinking we've seen In the rise of coding boot camps, we've

15:01

seen the rise of the the massively online college

15:04

courses. And so the thinking is let's hire people based on

15:08

skills. And so a lot of big companies, including the US

15:10

government, are dropping their skills require or their college

15:13

degree requirements, saying we're gonna hire based on

15:15

skills. So this is opening the door to a much wider labor pool

15:20

than we've ever had in the past. So no, there are plenty of smart

15:23

people in this country, tons of them. And the question has

15:26

always been how do we get them to the best jobs? The CIA knew

15:29

how to do that. But a lot of private employers didn't.

15:33

Because recruiters are in the habit of just we need to hire

15:36

from Carnegie Mellon because we know we get good talent from

15:38

Carnegie Mellon. Right. Well, that thinking has shipped.

15:42

Antone Gonsalves: Alright, and that wraps it up for for this

15:46

week's show, you know, thanks for watching, and enjoy the

15:50

weekend. I'll see you next Friday.