Understand Enterprise Connectivity by Going Directly to the Source

Modern networking and the technology surrounding the Internet continues to evolve and transform the way we connect with others. As innovations within AI and generative AI expand at warp speed, connectivity solutions that can keep up and support these advancements are critical.

In this archived FastChat, Bill Kleyman, CEO and co-founder at Apolo.us, and Mattias Fridström, chief evangelist at Arelion, connect to discuss how scalable backbone and network services for application and cloud providers deliver integrity, reliability, reach, and performance.

A transcript of the first five minutes of the video follows below. Minor edits have been made for clarity.

Bill Kleyman: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another fun and very informative fast chat sponsored by Arelion. I'm Bill Kleyman, CEO of Apolo.us and contributing editor here at Network Computing. And listen, today I am joined by the very amazing Mattias Fridström, chief evangelist at Arelion.

We had a pre-call before this, and I have to say, there is a certain type of person who might get just a little bit too excited about networks. Yes, that might be me, I have a network engineering undergrad, but that is also going to be Matthias because he is going to be that excited guy with me today.

Now, since joining Arelion, which was known as Telia in 1996, he has worked in several senior roles with the company. Congratulations, you have that C-level in your title, Matthias, I like that. And most recently, Matthias was appointed as CTO. Welcome to the conversation; it's great to have you.

Mattias Fridström: Thank you very much, Bill. It's great to be here.

Bill Kleyman: Alright, let's set the stage. We don't have an hour to talk, but we do have about ten minutes or so to dive into an important conversation regarding connectivity. Literally, the thing that you're using right now to hear us talk and be very excited about. Let me paint the picture for you in terms of where we are right now with the state of connectivity and the Internet.

It goes without saying that the level of interoperability and connectivity continues to grow, and we see how the technology surrounding the Internet is transforming the way we connect with others. And now, with things like generative AI, and AI in general, things are moving even faster.

Just look at what happened over the past year. In 2023, the number of internet users worldwide stood at 5.3 billion, which means that about two-thirds of the global population is currently connected to the World Wide Web.

Now, let's look at the U.S. alone, this is a statistic as of March 1, 2024. The Internet is accessible by nearly 95% of the U.S. population, or about 322 million people, according to the U.S. Census.

All of this is going to ultimately become more connectivity, and we're driven by new and emerging technologies like AI, and of course, generative AI. None of this is slowing down, and that is what I'm here to talk about, which is this level of connectivity.

Before we jump in, I'm curious what Arelion does. So, Matthias, let's bring you into this conversation. Who is Arelion, and what do you do?

Mattias Fridström: That's a very good question. Arelion is a connectivity provider, and you’ve already mentioned that connectivity is very useful. So, it's obviously good to be a connectivity provider, but we are mostly famous for providing the internet backbone.

On the one hand, that means we're providing content providers with access to the Internet so that they can sell their services. It could be games or whatever they put on the Internet. And then, on the other end, we're connecting all the operators, ISPs, and mobile providers who want to provide services to their end users.

We're this glue in the middle that provides the networks with what we call an internet backbone. Currently, we are the number one ranked internet backbone in the world, which means that we are the most important network for Internet work.

But then, of course, we have this whole network and therefore we can sell other services that interact with it. So, we do sell various types of connectivity services to enterprises and other operators. Wherever they need to connect, and whoever they need to connect with, we can help them with that.

Bill Kleyman: You are the number one internet backbone in the world. So, I'll be perfectly honest, you are talking to the right people here at Network Computing because they'll say this is good news. You're keeping us connected.

Mattias, we've seen a massive shift happening at the enterprise level. It's silly, right? I love getting into this conversation. This whole discussion around artificial intelligence and now generative AI isn't a fad. Please understand this is not a fad.

This is as much of a fad as when we stopped riding horses, and started driving cars, or when we stopped taking trains and started flying airplanes. What we're experiencing now is a shift in humanity, and not just technology, in terms of how we interact with data.

The backbone of all that is going to be the Internet. So, Mattias, you have an extraordinary perspective on what is happening to the end user. So, I must ask you this question. Why is all this important to the enterprise?

Mattias Fridström: You're right; every enterprise needs connectivity. It could be that they want to provide their products on the Internet, and then, of course, that's the perfect thing for us because we can take them wherever they need to go. So, that's one thing. Most importantly, enterprises need to communicate inside their corporate network.

View the entire “Enterprise Connectivity: Going Direct to the Source” FastChat in the video above.