Strategic Networks for the future: Innovation and Resilience

Modern networks, due to their critical role and the services they support, cannot afford downtime—even for a moment. These are strategic and mission-critical networks: they guarantee the resilience of today’s digital ecosystems and enable the future of connectivity.

When a portion of the network stops, everything stops: communications, essential services, and access to cloud platforms. Networks are not just technological infrastructures—they are vital assets, responsible for ensuring continuity and security in the daily lives of people, organizations, and communities.

Today, these networks face an unprecedented challenge: the rise of artificial intelligence, which not only requires new infrastructural capabilities—speed, low latency, security, and the ability to handle massive data volumes—but also becomes an integral part of the network itself, enabling automation, intelligent monitoring, and predictive capabilities.

In this context, the network is a true competitive factor—a key driver of innovation, scalability, and sustainable development.

Fabrizio La Paglia, Head of Telco, Media & Cloud, guides us through the heart of this transformation: what it means to design, operate, and evolve strategic networks, the responsibilities involved, and how new technologies—from cloud to edge computing to AI—are reshaping the way we imagine the connectivity of the future.

1) Our company has a long-standing expertise in networks for telecom operators, which are by definition mission-critical networks. How has this expertise evolved over time?

Our roots are firmly grounded in telecommunications, a sector where reliability is non-negotiable. Over time, we have built distinctive expertise through three key pillars:

• Highly specialized competence centers focused on emerging technologies such as AI, quantum computing, and cloud.

• Continuous listening to customers, to anticipate their needs and translate them into tangible solutions.

• A strong investment in people and skills development, not only to update technical know-how, but also to strengthen the ability to interpret market evolution and operational challenges.

2) Today, operators need to enhance the security, resilience, and scalability of their networks. What is the strategy we adopt to respond to these new requirements?

Today, operators must enhance security, resilience, and scalability at the same time. Our strategy is built on an end-to-end approach: from planning to the execution of complex projects.

We deliver design, development, and large-scale implementation, integrating automation, artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and security by design. A further cornerstone is our ability to provide managed services, because resilience is not only achieved during deployment, but above all through day-to-day operations.

We position ourselves as a trusted partner, supporting customers throughout the entire lifecycle of their networks and platforms.

3) What role do emerging technologies—such as cloud, edge computing, and AI—play in making these infrastructures and the services they deliver more secure and powerful?

Cloud computing enables unprecedented flexibility and scalability, allowing services to be delivered rapidly and adapted in real time to changing demand.

Edge computing brings processing power closer to users, reducing latency and enhancing the quality of experience.

Artificial intelligence becomes the “brain” of the network, enabling automation, proactive monitoring, and predictive maintenance to prevent failures and strengthen cybersecurity.

Together, these technologies transform networks from static infrastructures into dynamic, intelligent platforms.

4) Looking ahead, which trends will have the greatest impact on this sector in the coming years?

Looking ahead, four major trends will define the evolution of strategic networks:

• Advanced automation: networks will become increasingly autonomous, capable of self-healing and self-configuration.

• Security by design: with the growth of cyber threats, resilience will be embedded natively into every network component.

• Telco-Cloud convergence: operators will evolve into service platform providers, adopting As-A-Service business models even for traditional connectivity services.

• Sustainability: networks will be required to reduce energy consumption and emissions, leveraging efficient technologies and circular economy models.

Together, these trends will shape not only the competitiveness of operators, but also the ability of digital ecosystems to grow in a secure, inclusive, and sustainable way.

5) If you had to summarise our mission in this field in one sentence, what would it be?

Technology must serve people and society: we are committed to delivering resilient, secure, and intelligent networks that support today’s essential services and become the enabling platform for future innovation, digital transformation, and shared social growth.