Author: Mattias Fridström

Chief Evangelist

How backbone networks support AI infrastructure

AI workloads are rapidly reshaping infrastructure demands and design. Currently, AI model training is mostly concentrated in centralized campuses with access to affordable power, typically with less proximity to network infrastructure. Simultaneously, these workloads are driving data center interconnection traffic, particularly as distributed architectures become more common and latency requirements tighten.

Why data protection redefines enterprise networking

In today’s volatile digital landscape, data protection now sits firmly at the center of the enterprise risk agenda. Across industries, regions, and business models, organizations are grappling with rising complexity, accelerating technological change, intensifying geopolitical pressures, and an expanding network ecosystem that is increasingly difficult to govern.

A connectivity milestone: 200 Tb/s

At the edge of our backbone, traffic recently reached 200 Tb/s. It took 30 years (from 1993 to 2023) to reach 100 Tb/s of traffic, but only another two and a half years to reach 200 Tb/s today. This exponential growth proves that the public Internet remains the backbone of the global economy.

2026 predictions: From data sovereignty to quantum security

AI has transformed the technology ecosystem over the past year, pushing networks to become faster, more agile and more scalable to support these workloads. In parallel, many operators are working to integrate AI into their own operations, from predictive maintenance to customer service chatbots, to keep pace with the escalating scale of modern infrastructure.

Balancing AI’s opportunities and challenges to serve enterprises

AI has taken the technology industry by storm, with enterprises deploying emerging applications to create business value. Amid this shift, operators are leveraging network automation, optical innovation and more to support enterprise AI use cases. Still, the technology ecosystem must balance AI’s opportunities with its challenges. While AI can improve operations, it can also leave […]

How enterprises can evaluate their multi-vendor strategy in the age of AI

As AI/ML implementations accelerate, the stakes are higher for enterprises to secure reliable, scalable connectivity that enables these applications’ real-time functionality. Enterprises are increasingly diversifying their connectivity choices to meet these requirements, with local providers supporting access use cases and wholesale operators providing core connectivity. Many operators are maximizing diversity, scalability, physical security and other […]

Scaling AI through our global network footprint

As the connectivity ecosystem evolves rapidly, a robust Internet backbone becomes even more crucial to ensure the real-time functionality of AI applications. In turn, operators must enhance diversity, reliability and reach to enable high-capacity data transfer between data center campuses or to support end-user requests at the network edge. To leverage the power of AI […]

Is imperfection telecom’s secret weapon?

In pursuit of perfection, operators must focus on their service offerings and overall operations as much as their network fundamentals. However, pursuing perfection across various facets is a formidable obstacle. So, will this goal always remain elusive?

Slaying the many-headed hydra of cyber-physical network threats

Today’s cyber-physical systems face diverse threats that endanger global communications, including accidental damage, geopolitical sabotage, DDoS attacks, and natural disasters. Network operators are battling a many-headed hydra, with each threat requiring a unique mitigation strategy.

When did the telco industry stop striving for perfection?

In our industry, we often talk about quality. The truth is that the definition of quality is an intensely personal judgement. It is a topic that we discuss constantly at Arelion and we’ve explored it many times with our customers: for some it is all about speed and availability and, for others, the customer service experience. It varies by region, role and individual.

Silver linings through cloud rightsizing

While migrating certain systems and workloads to the cloud offers scalability, efficiency and on-demand resource availability, cloud migration is not one-size-fits-all. During a massive two-year cloud migration project for a global internet carrier, I learned the importance of cloud “rightsizing” when pursuing ambitious cloud migration.

Top optical predictions for 2025 and beyond

As AI/ML, cloud applications and rapid data center growth transform the global technology landscape, operators are under pressure to innovate the optical layer of their networks to keep pace with soaring capacity and data transfer demands.