 Aloha, everyone, and welcome to JSA TV, where we're covering the latest stories, trends, and innovations from leaders in global connectivity, real estate, and the networks within. Buffy Harakitas of JSA, and joining me today is Mike Jonas. He is the CEO of Light River. Mike, welcome. Well, thank you. Good to be back. Yeah, we're here in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii. No place better to be. Yeah. Telecom's a hard job. No place better to be to talk about network efficiency and innovation. Obviously, Light River is a leader, a data center leader here in the ecosystem, reimagining the future of network efficiency and innovation. So it's a pleasure to have you. And we've seen some recent news coming out of Light River, specifically the appointment of Jim Brinksma as the new SVP of Software Solutions. So congratulations on that appointment. Why don't you talk to us a little bit about Jim and his vision and how that aligns with your goals for 2024? No, you bet. Great question. So last year was another record year for us by every measure. We were able to grow the products we wanted to grow, the customers we wanted to help, and we have to do it again this year. And so that means providing these solutions in more places, more software, more services for more clients. And I don't believe you have to do that by brute force in the age of automation and AI. You can do it through intelligence and tools, and Jim believes that too. And so we will repeat the records we set last year. And Jim, who is a native SaaS technologist, strong software solutions in the network space, both telecom and data center, is a perfect match to help us build that program. Well congratulations, Jim. If you're watching, we're excited to hear some more stories and more growth coming out of Light River with you leading this software innovation team. And when it comes to partnerships, which is also a critical part of growth in every organization, why don't you tell us a little bit more about some of these collaborations that you've been building with OpenZR, Douglas Fastnet. Give us some details there, Mike. Well, we're in technology and telecom. And the only thing we know about technology is it's going to change. One of the changes we've been tracking for a good long time is the move to open networking, disaggregated networking. And our work with people like the OIF and like the XR forum and others is that we believe that the metro network architectures and the campus metro architectures are going to utilize these kinds of open optics, in these kinds of open routers, in these kinds of open optical platforms. And so we've been spending the last several years investing in that know-how, both on the design side, the deploy side, as well as the automation side, so that we're ahead of the curve there and we can make sure our customers do not get caught behind the curve. I mean, always staying ahead of the curve, definitely for light river year after year. So so happy to hear about some of these partnerships that you're going to continue to grow to help influence network efficiency and innovation for sure. And looking forward to 2024, what are some of your primary goals and what role do some of your innovations like Netflix, Netflix as a service, why don't you tell us a little bit more about that solution and some of your goals for 2024, Mike? Well, the changes in technology, the changes in need, the endless ramp of bandwidth requirements are going to put us in more places with more clients. And so we have to offer them more delivery options. And these Netflix as a service, engineering as a service, just general support for the wavelength networks is a vital part of how we can help them to grow without growing their OPEX proportionally. So we all have to grow. We all have to make it profitable, but we are not going to want to or be able to recruit or retain all the talent that we need. So we have to use tools and we have to be able to access those tools from anywhere at any time. And all of the portfolio products that we're developing for wavelength support for network monitoring and for access to network data from the Netflix platform are all part of the same effort. Yeah. I mean, tools, automation. We're hearing so much about it here at PTC 24. And it was such a pleasure to hear here from you again about Light River and all that is in store for 2024. Mike, is there anything else you would like to add today? No, it's going to be another fun year. And to your point, practical automation is a way you can improve your business. And we're here to help. Great, great. Well, thanks again. It's such a pleasure to have you, Mike and viewers. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of JSA TV live from PTC 2024. Stay connected and happy networking.