DriveNets Drives Comcast Network Upgrade
DriveNets has made a joint announcement with Comcast, stating that the service provider will deploy DriveNets’ Network Cloud to expand Janus, a trial network designed by Comcast to deliver a faster, more performant nationwide network for its Internet customers.
The deal is a big one for both companies, expanding DriveNets’ roster of service provider deals while giving Comcast a way to revamp its network. For DriveNets, it is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and for Comcast, business improvements worth at least as much.
Janus, announced in September 2024, is a new software-based network built on DriveNets disaggregated platform that aims to address a range of needs for Comcast: First is the need to support Comcast’s 63 million locations nationwide and beyond, as demand builds. The main goal of Janus is to virtualize network services to provide a more flexible way of launching and supporting new services. The services can also be hosted from the cloud, for example, and deployed at the edge.
Comcast also wants to improve the quality of its services, particularly for live sports broadcasts, where competition is tough and bandwidth demand fluctuates. And Comcast is looking to improve reliability, in part by deploying GenAI applications to identify the location of any service problems and reroute traffic as needed.
Why Comcast Needs DriveNets
DriveNets supplied Comcast with its Network Cloud service for the first Janus trial in Atlanta and will now help Comcast expand nationwide. The basis for the project is DriveNets’ disaggregated technology. This approach disengages software from hardware in the transport network, making it possible to control every network layer in cloud-native software that works with multivendor, white box hardware.
Comcast is also using the software-based DriveNets Network Cloud to deploy AIOps tools in the Janus network. “Our customers are consuming more data, faster, than ever before and we’re driving network virtualization and AI innovation [emphasis added] to meet and exceed their expectations now and into the future,” said Elad Nafshi, Chief Network Officer, Comcast, in the press release.
With AIOps, Comcast refers to the ability to use AI to pinpoint where any problems occur in the network and automatically fix them. Comcast also will use AI and machine learning to optimize performance. This is the approach we refer to as AI for networking, as opposed to networking for AI.
Genesis and Janus
Comcast’s Janus project is distinct from another project Comcast calls Genesis, which is an undertaking to virtualize the entire Comcast broadband network. During Comcast’s recent Q4 2024 earnings conference call, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said that Comcast has already virtualized 50% of its network via Genesis and will have 70% done by the end of 2025. “So a top priority is driving our broadband network upgrade that will ultimately deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds across every market we serve and incorporate AI throughout our entire network,” Cavanagh said.
DriveNets, a Futuriom 50 company, has been advancing well in the service provider space. Customers besides Comcast include AT&T and KDDI. The vendor, founded in 2015 and based in Ra'anana, Israel, has garnered $587 million from a raft of investors that include D1 Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Pitango.
Futuriom Take: DriveNets has become a major supplier to Comcast in its efforts to overhaul its network operations, in a deal potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. This is a big win for DriveNets and its disaggregated solution to pair network efficiency and control with scalability, all based on a cloud architecture.
