James Walker

“Four years ago we migrated our Ethernet over SDH services to native Ethernet over PBB and it is proving highly popular with our data centre customers. They love Ethernet’s simplicity and scalability and want more. However, as data centre networks become larger and more sophisticated, they are coming up against challenges, and OCC is committed to resolving those issues.” As Vice President, Managed Network Services for Tata Communications, James Walker is responsible for leading the company’s VPN line of business – covering enterprise and wholesale Ethernet, MPLS, managed IPSec and data centre interconnect services. Following the company’s migration from Ethernet over SDH to native Ethernet over PBB, James became increasingly aware of the gap between data centre clients’ love of Ethernet’s simplicity and scalability, and the growing challenges to Ethernet on the cloud scale. Discussion of these issues with industry leaders lead James to launch OpenCloud Connect (OCC) in May 2013. James brings to the OCC over two decades’ experience in the telecommunications and IP space. He currently leads the strategy, management and development of the Tata Communications VPN portfolio which covers more than 3,000 Ethernet access nodes in over 60 countries, direct MPLS services to 100 countries and managed extended access and network integration offerings in more than 190 countries. James’ previous experience includes Head of Access and Professional Services at BT Wholesale, where he was responsible for access cost reductions for data products, the development of the 21CN Ethernet and MSIL products, and the promotion of BT Professional Services to wholesale customers. Earlier positions include: seven years at Cable & Wireless in various positions, finally managing the wholesale data portfolio globally; and senior positions with Telstra, Sun Microsystems Professional Services, and several internet startup companies in North America and Australia.