Company: Rakuten Symphony, Tokyo
Nomination Submitted by: Rakuten Symphony
Company Description: Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms, and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches.
Nomination Category: Thought Leadership Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Thought Leader of The Year - Business Products
 Nomination Title: Partha Seetala
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated individual, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 162 words used.
Partha is the rare technologist with a strong entrepreneurial acumen, his latest success resulting in one of telecom’s most interesting acquisitions of the past few years.
Early last year, as CEO of Robin.io, Partha cracked the code for how to help mobile operators finally succeed in cloud by deftly adapting an enterprise-centric approach to telecom’s rigid network architecture. The company was acquired by Japanese tech conglomerate Rakuten, which proved the solution could work in Rakuten Mobile’s nationwide network in Japan. His approach is now being packaged for availability to any mobile operator in the world.
Partha’s career spans integral roles with some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent software companies, including Veritas, where he conceived, architected, and led engineering teams to take multiple products from concept to market in the scale-out storage, distributed systems, content-aware file systems, and information analytics space. He was also an adviser on multimillion-dollar product lines, including NetBackup Appliance, Cluster File System, Veritas Cluster Server, and Information Fabric.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Outline the nominee's thought leadership achievements since 1 January 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 205 words used.
Partha is an authority on cloud-native computing, data management, and storage solutions. His most recent venture, Robin.io (now SymcloudTM of Rakuten Symphony) recognized the need for simplification of the software application through the infrastructure stack – making infrastructure truly invisible and hyperconverged. The hyperconverged cloud-native Kubernetes product suite, SymcloudTM, which he envisioned, uses a new approach to manage the software applications and services of enterprises. It recognizes the shortcomings of existing tools and the burden that applications and software architecture teams struggle with to manage the complexity of large-scale infrastructure.
Besides supporting multiple enterprise-wide use cases, SymcloudTM supports a ground-breaking application in the telecom industry that is currently struggling with the massive scale of 5G/Edge deployments and the automation and orchestration of end-to-end spectrum. Tier-1 telcos and greenfield operators have integrated SymcloudTM into their architecture, with significant cost and operational benefits.
- It has enabled the zero-touch provisioning of 18,000 servers and 8,000+ base stations for a tier-1 telco, and its cloud platform is hosting applications in 500 Kubernetes clusters.
- Operators have realized up to 40% reduction in CAPEX, 30% reduction in OPEX, 30% faster VMs operations, and a significant reduction in RAN deployment: 4 MINS for 5G site deployment instead of days/months.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
The genesis of SymcloudTM/Robin.io:
While Partha and the co-founders of Robin.io foresaw the advantages of a container-based approach for compatibility, security, and efficiency, commercial viability was not a given. In mid-2014, container technology was relatively new, and carried significant market risk. SymcloudTM/Robin.io arrived before products like Docker and even Kubernetes. While there were some first mover advantages in store, being a trailblazer came with its own challenges, especially in terms of the end-vision and in creating a viable product that supports real-world use cases and finds ready industry application.
By 2018, containerization had become the foundation for modern software infrastructure. Kubernetes was being used for most enterprise projects. And today, Kubernetes is the de facto standard for container orchestration. Looking back, betting on an evolving technology like containers took vision and perseverance. Robin.io/Symcloud™ was at least two years ahead of competitors, giving it a significant competitive edge.
Pledging support for Rocky Linux:
In December 2020, Red Hat announced it would discontinue development of CentOS, which has been a production-ready downstream version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in favor of a newer upstream development variant known as "CentOS Stream." In response, the original founder of CentOS, Gregory Kurtzer, announced Rocky Linux to achieve the original goals of CentOS.
Rakuten Symphony and the surrounding technology ecosystem have heavily invested in certifying Rocky Linux to manage real-time radio processing workloads. These workloads require the latest network acceleration technologies, complex workload provisioning and the most up-to-date industry device drivers.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 221 words used.
Partha remains a respected, leading authority figure on scale-out storage, file systems, networking, distributed systems, big data and information analytics. This is evidenced by his recent acknowledgement as Most Influential Person in Cloud by his peers, based on a 2023 survey conducted by Silverlinings, elected among 32 contenders.
Partha’s product, Symcloud™, has won numerous awards and recognitions for the value-additions it has delivered to the telecom industry. These awards recognize Symcloud™’s contributions towards building telecom cloud/edge/networking solutions that empower businesses, small and large, to remain productive under challenging conditions, reducing costs and simplifying operations at scale.
2023 award wins:
Published blogs:
2023 speaking sessions:
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
