Light Reading editor Phil Harvey and Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin discuss the dominance of AI as a technology and business topic at OFC 2025, what optical networking products are getting telco traction and how the influence of hyperscale cloud providers is creating a shift in the market for networking vendors, chip makers and more.
It's an AI world and we're just living in it.
As we depart OFC 2025, the show buzz was all about AI, data centers and the ongoing buildout, with hyperscalers and some enterprises driving significant investment and innovation.
Sterling Perrin, Heavy Reading's senior principal analyst, optical networks and transport, recapped some of the discussions from the Optica Executive Forum held earlier this week. That meeting highlighted some of the new battlegrounds inside the data center, where shorter reach optical networking connections are poised to replace copper-based Ethernet links in the coming years. We're not there yet, but the products are coming in anticipation of volume buys from large cloud providers.
Perrin also discussed a trend where the largest telecom networking vendors like Cisco and Infinera (now Nokia) are gaining traction with optical networking products designed specifically for data center use. The telco presence at OFC was not nearly as strong or as vocal as it has been in the past, as hyperscalers are fully setting the technology direction of the market with their purchasing power.
As the AI infrastructure buildout continues, it remains to be seen what impact AI will have on telecom carrier networks in the near term. It will have some kind of impact, Perrin said, influencing both regional traffic and network requirements for telcos. But the extent of that is still being discussed, and many of the telcos themselves aren't so sure.
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