Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping carrier-class infrastructure, enabling greater automation, reliability, and operational efficiency across telecom and utility networks. From intent-based operations to predictive insights and energy optimization, AI is becoming a critical enabler of resilient, future-ready architectures.
As operators face growing traffic demands, strict regulatory requirements, and increasingly complex IT and OT environments, carrier-grade design, intelligent automation, and security by design have become essential. To shed light on how these challenges are addressed across live networks, Raquel Bettencourt, Business Developer & Pre-Sales Manager at Axians Portugal, shares her perspective on designing secure, resilient, and scalable networks for telcos and utilities.
How can network and infrastructure architectures be designed to meet growing demands for resilience, security, and performance?
Effective architectures combine carrier grade technologies with automation and security by design. A critical success factor is working with strong technology partners that provide mature solutions, ensuring advanced capabilities, high availability, and robust security from the outset.
Operational resilience is strengthened through telemetry-driven operations, including continuous monitoring, configuration validation, and automated rollbacks. These capabilities allow early detection of issues, reduce human error, and improve overall performance.
Failure mode testing also plays an important role. By simulating link outages, node failures, or overload conditions, often using digital twin models, operators can validate network behavior before deploying changes into live environments.
At Axians, network designs are built on multi-level redundancy, intelligent segmentation, and automated orchestration. We integrate IP/MPLS, SD WAN, and software-defined networking solutions to ensure continuity during failure scenarios, while applying zero trust security principles adapted to the specific needs of critical infrastructures.
How does Axians support telcos and utilities with end-to-end cybersecurity and NIS2 compliance?
Telcos and utilities are critical infrastructures and frequent targets for cyber threats. Achieving NIS2 compliance requires a holistic approach that starts with full asset visibility and continuous vulnerability management, combined with strong network segmentation and incident response capabilities.
Axians delivers an end-to-end cybersecurity portfolio covering asset discovery, vulnerability management, SOC and SIEM implementation, and regulatory compliance preparation, including NIS2. Through managed services, we provide continuous monitoring, real time threat intelligence, and coordinated incident response.
We work closely with customer security teams, combining technology, processes, training, and strategic consulting to strengthen overall security posture and long-term resilience.
How will AI-driven infrastructures, mission critical wireless, and cybersecurity shape the future of operator and utility networks?
Over the coming years, operator and utility networks will evolve toward more autonomous and intent driven operations, with AI supporting decision making, validating changes, and enabling adaptive behavior based on traffic and service priorities.
Mission critical wireless and edge computing will continue to expand, with private 5G becoming a standard component in industrial and utility environments. These technologies will support low latency processing, deterministic behavior, and safer field operations.
Cybersecurity will increasingly move toward adaptive and continuous defense models. Driven by NIS2 and growing IT and OT convergence, security will become more automated, contextual, and integrated into network design.
Axians supports this evolution end to end by combining advanced connectivity, AI assisted operations, and robust cybersecurity, helping customers scale confidently and prepare their critical infrastructures for future challenges.