John McGuiness is one of the best people to speak to about the comms and data networks that keep New Zealand connected. His career of almost 50 years has led through the Post Office and NZ Telecom to Chorus and, in that time, he has overseen the deployment of new network systems and met the changing demands made on networks.
John speaks of his passion for optical fibre, and a word he uses a number of times to describe his work is ‘creative’ — he is Interested in creating things, describes himself as a ‘creative’ person and is pleased to be part of “a creative team of engineers”. He enjoys his role as Principal Network Design Engineer at Chorus since it gives him “freedom to innovate in the network, look at the future potential, optimise what we have”.
John’s keynote at the New Zealand convention is titled “Telco and DC – complementary connectivity for a seamless high-speed network”. His keynote will share his passion for network design and engineering, which he sees as “a big subject in its own right, but nobody is talking about the fibre itself, how it behaves and how we can make it perform better.”
He wants to communicate several thoughts to the audience through his keynote: “Firstly, to deliver some solid insights on the technologies underpinning the fibre network, for those who may not have thought much about it”.
He considers this a subject not often covered at conferences but of considerable importance to counter the view that connectivity is “just a simple utility like turning a tap on — there’s an awful lot more, more ways to use it and to treat it”.
He sees networks as vital in the emerging digital era of low latency and larger data packages. This has led to embedding customer data centre equipment into exchanges and the move into data centres as an evolutionary step for Chorus, as telcos and data centres integrate more closely in terms of meeting connectivity requirements and as the company gets more “DC-centric”.
The title of his keynote describes the process that Chorus follows through the evolution of its Central Office to complement data centre network capabilities and requirements. This process has also addressed that telcos have traditionally achieved a higher grade of network specification and performance than data centres, particularly those that rely on networks based on lower bandwidth multi-mode fibre.
He is proud that Chorus does not do ‘off-the-shelf’, and he sees creativity and delivering a functional ecosystem as driving the company at its highest level. In part, his keynote will examine why this is important and how it can be achieved.
To attend John’s presentation at W.Media’s New Zealand Convention, please register here
