The year 2000 had passed without a glitch, despite the fears of many around Y2K. Cell phones were finally becoming accessible, and the first-gen iPod was the coolest thing you could own, not to mention the cult following of Harry Potter. It is hard to believe that at the turn of the millennium, only about 7% of the population was online, and I was lucky to be one of them. The pace and growth of technology adoption seemed rapid and exponential. From the very beginning of this new generation, one thing was clear: software was the future, and mobility was everything. Soon after Facebook and YouTube arrived. People were increasingly exposed and had access to a whole new world: a world where everyone could always stay connected. That is when the connected world idea gained momentum: a true world without boundaries.
Fast forward to the great recession, I went to work as an engineer in a hyper-growth startup that was developing an innovative network security application that saw ubiquitous adoption across all the major global telecom operators. We were among the minority of companies experiencing growth during the downturn because we were pivotal to the IP transformation of our customers.
“I focused my growth on riding the wave of virtualization and cloudification and understanding the new language of data-driven businesses”
- Dipthi Venkatesh, Product Launch Manager, Rakuten Symphony
The telecom industry was a super exciting place to be because we got to work with VOIP, LTE, and IMS. But underneath all this cool technology was the big fat energy-consuming hardware that physically sat somewhere in the customer network. It was not until around 2010 that the radical move to the cloud and SaaS multi-vendor distributed architecture transformation began impacting the telco industry. I realized then that this shift would change my career trajectory.
In the subsequent years, I focused my growth on riding the wave of virtualization and cloudification and understanding the new language of data-driven businesses. As our VP of Product Marketing Paul Black has said, “Technology is an enabler of business outcomes, and data is the lifeblood of an organization, and its value will exponentially increase every time you analyze it.”
When Covid-19 changed the world in 2020, a paradigm shift became necessary. The pandemic was terrifying in more ways than we could count, and life as we knew it came to a standstill. The change was taking place not only in my personal life but professionally as well.
I was looking to make an impact in a company that was disrupting the telecom industry, and Altiostar, with its work supporting Rakuten Mobile's world-first network in Japan, seemed like the perfect place. I joined its marketing team and established myself as a valuable contributor working towards moving the company’s vision, mission, and business goals. Rakuten ultimately acquired Altiostar, among other technology leaders and soon after followed the birth of Rakuten Symphony.
“I believe it is my time to continue to ride the wave of innovation and be part of this true transformation”
Rakuten Mobile was already disrupting the industry by being the world’s first next-generation mobile network built using the latest in cloud technologies, open interfaces, and automated, software-driven operational processes. Rakuten Symphony was created to bring this learning, technology, and software to other operators around the world looking to change the status quo.
At Rakuten Symphony, I am part of a talented, globally dispersed team dedicated to bringing Symworld to telecom operators across the world and helping them automate all facets of telecom functions, from planning, to building, to operations.
Metaphorically speaking, going to work every day is like being part of an orchestra performing a brand-new piece of music. Every team in our vast multi-cultural global organization is equally important, radically different, and yet comes together to produce a masterpiece. As our CMO Geoff Hollingworth puts it, “The time is now to deliver the world’s most advanced networks, in accelerated timeframes, yet at a much lower cost to plan, build and operate.” And I believe it is my time to continue to ride the wave of innovation and be part of this true transformation. I am super proud to be part of Rakuten Symphony and excited for the masterpiece we are creating.
