What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Telecom/5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Revolutionizing Business Connectivity: Bigleaf Networks' SD-WAN Innovations, 5G Integration, and Future Prospects
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Get ready to unlock the secrets of rock-solid Internet connectivity with industry veteran David Idle, Chief Product Officer at Bigleaf Networks. Ever wondered why your business's Internet connection still falters despite technological advancements? David spills the beans on how Bigleaf's cutting-edge SD-WAN solution tackles these persistent issues with features like load balancing, Quality of Service (QoS), and bandwidth aggregation. Whether your business relies heavily on cloud applications or IoT devices, you’ll discover how real-time monitoring and machine learning can revolutionize your network performance and enhance your overall user experience.
But that's not all—Bigleaf is making waves in the 5G arena! David discusses their trailblazing transition into 5G services, offering a comprehensive package that includes 4G, SD-WAN, top-notch customer support, and 5G. Learn about their unique approach to network security, which gives customers the freedom to choose between various firewall and SASE offerings. With a robust nationwide footprint and support for diverse connectivity options like Ethernet, fiber, and satellite, Bigleaf is poised to lead the future of Internet connectivity. Stay tuned for exciting insights on their major rebranding initiative and thrilling developments planned for 2025.
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Hey everybody Diving into the world of Internet and cloud-first connectivity today with Big Leaf, an innovator in the field. David, how are you? I'm doing great, Evan. Nice to see you. Good to see you. Thanks for joining me here. As someone who's been in the telco and Internet world for three decades now, I thought we had Internet connectivity nailed down. I thought we solved all the challenges and opportunities there, but I guess not. Maybe you could introduce yourself a little bit about your background and who is Big Leaf?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got it. Yeah, Thanks so much for having me today, evan. I really appreciate it. My name is Dave Idle. I'm the Chief Product Officer here at Big Leaf Networks and I have been an industry veteran, like you said, for about 30 years. I worked at Sprint, nextel earlier in the days, and most recently at Verizon, where I brought their 4G and 5G fixed wireless access products to market. So, yeah, I mean great question. So I thought we figured it out.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the thing you know, connectivity is not without its flaws, and so you could have any number of issues that could impact the connectivity associated with your business. So if you have one single connection that you're relying on to run your business, run credit card processing, to run really anything email, cloud applications, you name it anything that's connected to the internet you're at risk. And so with Big Leaf Networks, we've got an SD-WAN product that allows you to do load balancing across multiple circuits. We do QoS to ensure the quality of the circuit. So when you're starting to think about new technologies that are emerging right now, you're thinking about Starlink, you're thinking about 4G, you're thinking about 5G and really those wireless networks are highly dependent on the folks that use these things mobile phones and so there's millions of customers that are using these mobile phones and they have a significant impact on those wireless networks. And so where BigLeaf is really able to kind of come in is we have a quality of service over the internet that allows customers to leverage the applications that they're using to run their business and prioritize the traffic to those applications.
Speaker 2:When the networks are busy and so think about high usage days there might be a Monday morning You're trying to get a lot done. A lot of people are trying to get a lot done. There's a lot of folks using their mobile phones. They have meetings and things of that nature, and that's going to impact your wireless connectivity. And so if you're relying on fixed wireless access to run your business, you want to make sure that those calls go through. You want to make sure that those credit cards are processed. You want to make sure the applications you're using to run your business, your point of sale systems, are all running efficiently and effectively, and that's exactly what Bigleaf does.
Speaker 2:So, that's just our standard QoS. That's what we do on a single circuit and then across multiple circuits we're able to do load balancing, bandwidth aggregation, and both of those things are really important. So if you're unfamiliar with load balancing and bandwidth aggregation, they're actually two super powerful tools that SD-WAN provides, and so you know, when you think about bandwidth aggregation and you think about things like 4G, you know, a few years ago we might've said you can't run a business on 4G. That doesn't. You know, that doesn't make sense. Like if I'm using my computer and I'm trying to access email or I'm trying to use the internet or you know I need something for high speed.
Speaker 2:You know data that really isn't going to be compelling, and so a lot of businesses now are really relying on 4G now because it's so ubiquitous and they're able to run, you know, basic transactions over the internet, but it doesn't prevent the speed fluctuations or the speed cap I shouldn't say the speed limit associated with 4G, and what bandwidth aggregation allows you to do is connect more than one 4G circuit together, so up to four 4G circuits with a big lead service. So if your speed cap is only 50 megabytes per second sounds pretty low, sounds like DSL speeds. You can add three more circuits. That gets you up to 200 megabytes per second, and so that's really 5g speeds, so super compelling.
Speaker 2:Um, if you're trying to run a business and you're trying to and you're running you know multiple employees are trying to access the internet, either through a laptop or different things. You have temperature sensor controls that you're relying on in your business to make sure your coolers are are cool and your refrigerator doors are closed and things of that nature, and you have video camera monitoring and things like that. You have all these different things that are relying on the internet you really want to focus on having multiple internet connections and you want to be able to maximize that speed as high as you can, as you can really get it to optimize the services that you're using. So you know, all in all, you know, load balancing kind of works across that bandwidth aggregation to ensure that the right traffic is going over the right circuit. So it's going to prioritize traffic over the best connection, using that QoS capability, and it's going to deprioritize that load traffic. So think about, you know, bulk data and things of that nature that can run slower on a slower connection.
Speaker 1:Got it Well. There's a lot of interesting stuff to unpack there. Really interesting is what you're doing in real-time monitoring, I think, and machine learning to optimize network performance. That sounds a pretty new approach. How does that work? How does it contribute to a better customer? You know business experience today.
Speaker 2:Great question. So, from a real-time monitoring perspective, I think one of the key things key missing things that customers really have is the ability to actually see what's going on with their net connectivity.
Speaker 2:If you call your carrier right now and you say, hey, I need a connection, they're going to say, hey, which plan do you want? They're going to say, do you want 100, 200, a million gigabytes, a billion gigabytes? Most people have no idea how much data they're using, what speeds. They need that kind of a thing, and what BigLeaf is able to do is provide you visibility into that. So how much are you utilized? What applications are connected to your network and really help you right-size the internet connectivity that fits your needs, so that real-time monitoring not only helps you define or actually get visibility into what you're using.
Speaker 2:But it also lets you know if there's a problem, and so we'll immediately alert you, and we have high-end white glove services that can help you through those issues. So, for example, I have a connectivity issue called Bigleaf. We will do trace routing. We can tell you whether or not it's something on your end. It's something on our end, it's the do trace routing. We can tell you whether or not it's something on your end, it's something on our end, it's the ISP, and we can tell you exactly what you need to do to resolve that issue.
Speaker 2:So there's a tremendous amount of benefit associated with just being able to get that real-time visibility. And then, in terms of AI and automation, again, we're dynamically rerouting that traffic to ensure that you're getting the optimal connection, and so that's really what's key. And in the future, what we're actually going to be doing, which is very exciting here over the next couple of months, is we'll be able to run those trace routes for you automatically and make the adjustments without you having to even get an alert from Bigly. So if there's an issue with your ISP, we'll resolve it. If there's an issue with Bigly, we'll resolve it. There's an issue on your end, we'll look to resolve that or, at a minimum, give you the information that you need to resolve the issue on your end. So all of that will be automated as part of the overarching process.
Speaker 1:Wow, Impressive. Well, you don't hear about white glove service and telecom much. That seems kind of anachronism, but congratulations on that. So SD-WAN has been around for a while, pretty well understood. I still don't understand why businesses wouldn't use it, but I guess there are a lot of reasons. What are some of the challenges deploying that? You know, if you've got many branches, a lot of legacy tech out there, how do you, you know, help clients overcome that challenge? Yeah so you know, going back to your question, the white glove service.
Speaker 2:Right, that is where really big leaf shines. So we've got automated setup, which is completely unique in the market, and then we also have white glove support, which is also very unique in the market, as you pointed out. So our turn is incredibly low, our ratings are incredibly high, our NPS scores are incredibly high. Just to kind of give you a sense, our customers stick around with us for more than 10 years on average. Wow, about 155 months on average is the lifetime of our customers, so that's how satisfied they are. So I mean, that kind of tells you a little bit about the service that we support.
Speaker 2:Now, in terms of deployment, you know, a lot of times with SD-WAN providers, there's some hidden setup requirements and you know, if you don't have your own network, for example, you often have to set up a virtual POP, and so that's going to require you to set up a POP in Azure AWS you name it your cloud provider of choice, and a lot of people, small businesses in particular don't have the bandwidth or the skill set to figure out how to do that, even technical folks. It requires you to do a certain number of steps, a certain number of testing, before you can actually fully set up and utilize that SD-WAN service without a network, because Bigleaf has our own proprietary backbone network we automatically set up. So you can set up our service in as little as five minutes. So when we go through the provisioning process, we ask you for some basic information, and when I say basic, I mean it probably would take you five to 10 minutes if the information is sitting right in front of you. So who's your provider, what needs do you need, where's your location or some of the basic things that we need from you, and then we pre-provision that and that's send the device out to the customer within about three business days. It takes them about five minutes to set up the service. They essentially take their ISP routers, plug them into the Big Leaf router, essentially take their ISP routers, plug them into the Bigleaf router. Bigleaf router goes into either their Wi-Fi AP or it goes into their firewall and their firewall generates the Wi-Fi through their location and it works instantly, just like that. So that's how easy it is to set up the Bigleaf service.
Speaker 2:So what's so great about that and what's great about that deployment model for multi-location businesses is that oftentimes companies that have multiple locations say a paint store or a deli or a Subway sandwich shop, something along those lines. They don't always have a technical person that's local. They might have somebody regional, but they don't always have a technical person that's local. They might have somebody regional, but they don't always have somebody that's local. So they can have somebody who is sort of regional, pop into the store, spend five minutes at each location versus, you know, hours trying to troubleshoot something, either both remotely as well as, you know, on site, to get the equipment set up.
Speaker 2:It can be an extremely compelling situation, and so we've had a lot of customers in particularly more recently as we've launched our wireless service offerings, who are looking to leverage the service for branch locations. So whether that's a banking location where we can offer multiple locations for redundancy at their banking locations, or whether it's a construction site where they don't have a wireless option or, sorry, a wireline option, we're seeing lots and lots of those multi-location opportunities pop up, just simply because the ease of use, ease of configuration and setup Okay.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So we've seen 5G everywhere pretty ubiquitous. Certainly, folks like T-Mobile are pushing it out across the country, even in rural areas. How do you think about integrating 5G into your solution? And I mean, I, for example, have backup 5G for my little home business here, but how does that work with your customers, and what sort of options are out there today for fixed broadband 5G?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question, evan. So we are moving into the 5G space fast and furious, and so we started earlier this year with 4G entire solution, sd-wan, our customer support and our 5G services. And so we package all those services together, one price one partner being big leaf, one throat to choke, so to speak. We pick the best carrier for you, whether it's T-Mobile, at&t or Verizon, and we offer you a secondary backup SIM slot too. So if there's any issues with that primary connection connectivity, then we'll automatically switch you over to the secondary provider if they have a better service offering in your area. So we're doing kind of all of that managed support for the customer, packaging it all up into one solution at a very, very compelling cost for our customers and soon yet to be announced.
Speaker 2:We are offering an integrated solution at the beginning of 2025. So all in one box solution to be fully managed, to get optimized visibility inside of our dashboard for your 5G service offering. So not just the data that you're consuming, which oftentimes customers don't have visibility into, but you'd be able to see the data that you're consuming, the applications that are consuming that data. You'll also be able to see the signal strength for the 5G service you're getting. So oftentimes you know you're not getting the optimal service because your router's not located in the right place or because you need an external antenna, those kinds of things. We'll have full visibility into that and we'll be able to make the right recommendation for you based on your particular setup.
Speaker 1:Brilliant Sounds really compelling. So security is top of mind for everyone these days. It's top of the headlines every day. How do you think about network security and, I guess, your philosophy in general, when it comes to a company for cybersecurity?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So we want security to be the choice of the customer. So customers have different needs and because of those different needs we want you to have the optimized security solution for you, for your business. So we're security agnostic for the most part. We do offer firewall services for our Wi-Fi offerings. We will be offering firewall for our Wi-Fi offerings so we'll be able to do a level of security that helps to kind of enable the services to be used in most small business franchises locations. But for those, those more advanced security services, we want customers to have choice.
Speaker 2:So oftentimes you're kind of stuck with. You know, some SD-WAN providers that provide their own security offerings, what they call SASE, and in some cases those can be limited services. They can't do everything well, so they may be offering one particular part of their SaaS solution. That's really great, and the rest of those things are sort of cobbled get those security services set up and what they're good at and some of the things that are sort of more secondary to some of those service providers, and so it really depends on what's important to you as a consumer. What are the things that you're trying to protect? What doors and windows do you want to ensure are closed and not open, because not all security solutions are going to ensure that you've got an extra pad lock on that window upstairs in the right, left-hand room, you know, and some of them will, and so we want customers to be able to make those types of choices on their own to be able to make those types of choices on their own.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Tell us about your footprint. Is it nationwide or urban, suburban, rural? How do you think about deploying across the country with so many different technology options?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So our internet backbone is primarily domestic. We do have some POPs in Europe, but we're primarily located here in the US. We've got nine POPs distributed across the contiguous nine United States. In terms of our coverage, our router endpoints go back to our backbone, but customers can generally leverage any type of connectivity options. So, whether that's Ethernet, fiber, 4g, 5g, starlink and other low Earth orbit satellite technologies, Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Well, it's exciting times ahead. As you head out into the busy end of year, run up what's on your mind. Do you have any events coming up? Or I mean, I'll be at Mobile World Congress, but what else are you guys looking at out in the marketplace in terms of meetings or events, get togethers, that sort of thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. So you know, the team is looking right now to do sort of a big rebranding, a big leaf, and it's going to be very exciting. I think, really, the story that we're trying to tell here in the market is that, hey, we've been around for a while, we have very solid technology, our automation and services are really what we're going to be standing by. Our simplicity is something that we carry forward, and any of our new product roadmap development services, and we really want our brand to speak to those capabilities. In addition to that, we've got a lot more exciting things that are going to be coming in 2025. So I'll kind of save that for the next time we talk, evan, but I've already kind of alluded to a couple of things that we're really excited about, but there's a lot more to come from Big League.
Speaker 2:So we're really changing. We're transitioning into a very innovative business offering innovative solutions, really kind of casting a very broad net to capture a large portion of the customers that need the service offerings from us, and doing it in a compelling, low cost, simple way and really bringing it down to the market that really needs us the most. So that's really sort of first and foremost in terms of the events that we're looking at. You know, channel Partners is a big one that we're getting excited about right now. We've got a lot to talk about. We took a little break last year as we were getting some things prepared across the organization. This year, you know, we've got a really compelling roadmap and brand strategy that we want to unveil and really kind of talk and speak to the world about. So very, very exciting times right now for Big Leaf.
Speaker 1:It looks like it. Yeah, your website's chock full of interesting partnerships and customers and offers really cool stuff. Congratulations on all the success, Dave, and onwards and upwards.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, evan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much and thanks everyone for listening and watching and we'll talk to you soon. Take care.