Skyline Communications will be showcasing AI-powered Augmented Operation with their DataMiner end-to-end multi-vendor network management platform at NAB 2018.
Based on sophisticated and fully integrated real-time AI technology, DataMiner is now set to be the industry’s very first end-to-end network management platform enabling operators to manage the most complex operational ecosystems in ways that previously couldn’t be imagined. It will allow broadcast, media and service providers to tackle the new operational challenges they are facing in the all-IP and virtualized era all the more effectively.
AI-powered Augmented Operation
As the global broadcast, media and service provider industry is going through fundamental transformations, the complexity of operational systems is quickly growing beyond the point of human comprehension. Add to this certain ongoing evolutions, such as the increased dynamics of new operational systems, the proliferation and elasticity of services running across them, and the ever-increasing competitive pressure of the market, and it becomes more than clear that the management of the underlying technology infrastructure will require innovative new paradigms to effectively tackle the challenges that lie ahead. As in many other industries, the answer lies in sophisticated artificial intelligence software.
Bert Vandenberghe, the CTO at Skyline Communications, said that what sounded like mere imagination before is now quickly evolving towards a very tangible reality. Based on intensive fundamental in-house research by a dedicated team of talented subject matter experts for several years, DataMiner is now emerging as an intelligent proactive end-to-end network management platform that applies cutting-edge AI technology to shape an entirely new operation experience.
Of course, DataMiner was already in a very strong position to begin with, as it has the unique and indispensable data acquisition foundation to make this happen. This is the only platform in the industry that truly provides end-to-end visibility down to every single metric right across any component in an entire operation, across any vendor, technology or domain boundaries. The numbers are simply unsurpassed: more than 5,000 integrations of hardware and software products from over 600 vendors, leveraging any protocol or API, both industry standard and vendor specific. Fine-grained, complete and clean data are absolute prerequisites, as without that you can’t even consider venturing into the AI era. But even then, the challenges are daunting, because DataMiner needs to be able to learn on the fly, as that vast amount of data flows into it around the clock, and it simultaneously has to be able to apply its knowledge and intelligence on the fly. After all, what we are delivering is real-time AI-powered assistance to operators of critical infrastructures, where time is of the essence. It’s all about getting ahead of the game with a complex operation and being truly proactive.”
Ben Vandenberghe, the CEO at Skyline Communications, added that the DataMiner value proposition in this respect is absolutely unique. The company refers to this new paradigm as DataMiner Augmented Operation, because that’s exactly what is delivered with this technology. Operators continue to use the same trusted environment and user interfaces, but the AI facilitates and assists wherever it can, to make sure the operators get the correct information at the correct time, so that they can get ahead of the game. Sometimes this can be in very subtle ways, without operators even being fully aware of it, but that’s exactly the beauty of it.
Today, this technology already delivers tremendous benefits for DataMiner-powered operations. The company is cutting down significantly on the efforts required to configure and maintain the setup of the network management platform, as this is being replaced by fully autonomous learning capabilities. Simultaneously, DataMiner delivers far more intelligent and actionable information than ever before. In the area of fault management, for example, this means no tedious configuration and maintenance of alarm thresholds at all, while at the same time there are fewer symptomatic alarms, fewer false positives, far more accurate and intelligent alarms and even genuinely proactive notifications that enable operators to intervene before real service-impacting incidents happen. DataMiner Augmented Operation allows operators to focus on actually managing the operation and preventing operational issues rather than having to resolve them.