“Can’t Fail”, how one company is changing digital transformation forever

Image of the cloud
Meet Paul Miller from Wind River, a CTO dedicated to “can’t fail” technologies in the age of software-defined everything.

We’ve had the opportunity to meet Paul Miller, the Chief Technology Officer at Wind River. In a world increasingly driven by software innovation, Wind River is a company pioneering the technologies to accelerate digital transformation across the most important modern infrastructure and is advancing mission-critical intelligent systems at the edge with the highest standards for safety, security, performance, and reliability.

With nearly three decades of telecommunications and advanced technology leadership at both large companies and successful startups, Paul is dedicated to creating and implementing technology strategies that drive business success for customers.

Here’s a glimpse into our engaging conversation with this inspirational leader who shares insights on digital transformation, the new intelligent machine economy, and the software-defined era. 

How do you see your company differentiating itself from the competition? What makes it stand out?

Wind River is a leading provider of software for mission-critical intelligent systems at the edge, and our technology has been helping the world’s leading technology companies power billions of the safest, most secure devices in the world. In fact, our company mission is to enable our customers to solve the world’s most complex technology challenges and realize the digital future of the planet with software-defined mission-critical intelligent systems where security, safety, and reliability are paramount.

Wind River works with customers across a wide range of industries, such as aerospace and defense, automotive, medical, industrial, and telecommunications, to accelerate their digital transformation journey. For more than 40 years, the company has been an industry innovator, playing key roles on the NASA Mars roversthe world’s first successful 5G data session with Verizon, and working with Vodafone in building one of the largest Open RAN networks in the world.

Unique to the industry, we have introduced our Wind River Studio offering, which is a cloud-native platform for the development, deployment, operations, and servicing of mission-critical intelligent systems from edge to cloud. It enables dramatic improvements in productivity, agility, and time-to-market, with seamless technology integration that includes far edge cloud computing, data analytics, security, 5G, and AI/ML.

With Studio, we’re enabling the new intelligent machine economy together with our customers.

Now that we have some perspective on the pandemic, what do you see as the major and potentially long-lasting impacts on the Computer Software industry?

The pandemic has had an impact on the way companies work in terms of increasing the number of remote workers and how to successfully support software development in frequently globally dispersed teams.

Fortunately, modern tools are helping to bridge some of the gaps in this type of work. However, not being able to physically work together to solve particularly complex problems or architecture work still has an impact.

At the same time, across sectors, there is an increased cost due to the pandemic. Industries are looking at the effect on customers and whether they are willing to buy and deploy goods and software at a time when the process has become more difficult. When looking at the global supply chain, we also need to consider the impact of things like the availability of silicon chips, which ultimately support our software.

If customers have problems getting hardware systems, it can affect the adoption of software products. There is a complicated interplay of many factors: the changing nature of work, software development in a pandemic environment, and the global supply chain. On top of that, we have to look at the customer and see if they are willing or able to adopt new software and deploy it in the face of the pandemic. With all these elements, the current environment is complex. 

This environment is also driving the need for the machine economy, where smart, connected, autonomous, and economically independent systems/machines or devices carry out the necessary activities of production, distribution, and operations with little or no human intervention. In this growing machine economy, humans and machines are on a path to a future where data will exponentially increase the volume, type, and quality of work that is possible, across all industries.

Recognizing the evolving nature of work and the changing technological landscape towards a smarter future, The Wind River Studio offers addresses these challenges. creating a highly automated, cloud-based environment in which teams can develop software. The ability to more easily collaborate across geographically dispersed teams and members by working in the cloud will remain a key feature during and long after the pandemic.

How do you accelerate digital transformation with deep technical skills from design to production for customers?

Wind River has brought something unique to the industry with Wind River Studio. As mentioned, Studio is a cloud-native platform for developing, deploying, operating, and servicing mission-critical intelligent systems – essentially, the entire lifecycle of an intelligent system.

The growth of 5G and sophisticated AI applications, as well as the emergence of smarter systems and autonomous systems, are helping to realize the promise of IoT.

Wind River Studio provides a flexible, collaborative platform that addresses the dynamic automation needs surrounding the intelligent systems of the future, delivering a complete lifecycle experience tailored to a cloud-native environment. It enables significant improvements in productivity, agility, and time-to-market, with seamless technology integration that includes advanced cloud computing, data analytics, security, 5G, and AI/ML.

As an established technology leader, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking to venture into the computer software sector?

The software-defined world is pushing the pace of innovation and transforming market segments, so there has never been a more exciting time to venture into the computer software sector.

To be successful in the industry, you have to be willing to embrace innovation and to do so through a rigorous and objective process. From a CTO’s perspective, this process starts with analyzing the market and understanding the customer’s real challenges and desired business outcomes. It is important to always keep those items in mind, then build a vision and a solution that solves for them.

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Paul Miller

Paul Miller, Jr.

Chief Technology Officer

As Chief Technology Officer at Wind River, Paul Miller is responsible for the company’s technology strategy. With nearly three decades of telecommunications and advanced technology leadership at both large companies and successful startups, he is currently focused on Wind River’s edge virtualization and AI solutions, including Wind River’s market-leading 5G Cloud offering based on StarlingX.

Prior to joining Wind River, he was the Chief Technology Officer of GENBAND. He has led the architecture and development of various switching, IMS, IP media, call control and web applications solutions employed by multiple tier-one operators worldwide. His last eight years have been focused on OpenStack, SDN, and NFV automation technology, and include operation of a multi-site, multi-cloud infrastructure, multiple Tier one CSP VNF deployments as well as a significant NFV patent history. His contributions throughout his career have enabled many communications service providers worldwide to create new revenue streams, while dramatically reducing operating cost

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