Telstra throws deep learning at its network challenges

Telstra is running deep learning algorithms over its Networks data to predict equipment failures before they occur and to find ways to address voice and SMS scams. Data science (Networks) team manager Tim Osborne revealed the project, which is codenamed Telstra AI Lab or TAIL, in a presentation to IBM's Think 2020 conference overnight. TAIL is operating on a still-evolving applied data science platform pieced together with IBM's assistance. It uses a mix of existing Cisco UCS C240s and new IBM Power System AC922s for compute, and a Kubernetes-based stack on top, including Kubeflow, which is used to run machine learning algorithms on Kubernetes. Osborne said TAIL was supported by a team of 25 data scientists and date engineers, who worked "with network engineering folks end-to-end across the business, looking to solve some of their most challenging problems with data science."