Telco in 20 Ep 117 - Vodafone's New Rules with Open APIs, Cloud-Native, and AI (Lester Thomas)
The telecommunications industry has reached a critical inflection point where legacy IT systems can no longer support the demands of an AI-first world. Traditional telco technology approaches are too complex, slow, and fundamentally incompatible with the speed and agility required for modern digital services.
Today I'm speaking with Dr. Lester Thomas, head of new technologies and innovation at Vodafone Digital and IT, and a TM Forum Distinguished Fellow. Lester has driven some of the most ambitious cloud transformation projects in telecom, including Vodafone's groundbreaking data migration that consolidated servers across multiple countries into a unified cloud platform. We explore Vodafone's "Composable IT" vision and how the company is transforming its technology stack to be modular, open, and AI-ready.
Listen now to hear:
- Vodafone's data transformation that moved 17 petabytes from 600 Hadoop servers hosted in 11 countries into Google Cloud, creating the foundation for AI adoption [04:20]
- The company's strict "cloud native" definition requiring complete re-engineering rather than lift-and-shift, with 80-90% of digital workloads now truly cloud native [09:37]
- Three principles driving Vodafone's Open Digital Architecture: machine-readable standards, open-source collaboration, and proof-of-concept testing over RFPs [14:18]
- How AI is forcing complete software redesign, with Vodafone's AI Booster democratizing AI access across all business functions while maintaining governance [17:51]
Links and Resources:
- Watch Vodafone’s announcement at Google Cloud Next 2019 to rebuild their Data Ocean on Google Cloud to eliminate 600+ on-prem Hadoop servers across 11 countries.
- Check out my blogs, Vodafone is putting on a public cloud clinic and Be like Vodafone and move your analytics to the public cloud.
- Take a look at this TelcoDR Vodafone Case Study, How Vodafone Saved Nearly 70% by moving analytics platform to the public cloud.
- Read about Vodafone’s partnership with Google Cloud to process massive data volumes, enhance digital services, and drive innovation across Vodafone’s global operations.
- Check out this Google Cloud blog on how Vodafone's AI Booster project is supercharging AI & ML at scale.
- Listen to this episode of the TM Forum Inside Out podcast to learn how Open APIs spurn innovation.
- Take a look at this article from TM Forum, ODA explained: Tools for implementation and deployment.
- Watch my Gen AI Summit talk at MWC25 on Building an AI-first Telco.
- Learn more about how Totogi’s BSS Magic, powered by AI and the public cloud, enables seamless interoperability, drives innovation, and unlocks new growth.
- Lester Thomas has taken up wing foiling, an adventure sport combining sailing and flying. Here’s what it looks like if you are inspired and want to give it a try.
- Check out a video version of this episode on our YouTube channel.
- You can find the episode transcript here.
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This week’s guest
Dr. Lester Thomas is Head of New Technologies and Innovation and a Distinguished Engineer at Vodafone Digital. A 20-year Vodafone veteran, he leads Vodafone’s Open Digital Architecture strategy, driving innovation in Generative AI and cloud-native technologies. Lester is passionate about telecoms’ role in society and is a strong advocate for open standards and open-source. He has been recognized as a TM Forum Distinguished Fellow for his contribution to the Open Digital Architecture and Open-API initiatives. When not shaping telecom’s future, he enjoys adventurous sports, has a private pilot’s license and also enjoys sailing and other watersports.
Podcast Credits
- Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR
- Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
- Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
- Audio Editor: Andrew Condell
- Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery
- Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
- Music: Dyami Wilson