Service Provider Switching and Routing Forecast – 1H23 Data

Esther Cheh

Senior Analyst, Access Networks

Esther is Omdia’s Senior Analyst for transport networks, including router, switching, and optical technologies. She has more than 12 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, covering network operations, market and industry analysis, and business strategy in service provider and network equipment vendor environment.

Esther joined Omdia in December 2016. Prior to joining Omdia, she worked as a business consultant, providing strategic consulting on fixed network services to the service providers in the Asia Pacific performing market, opportunity sizing to support corporate decision-making, and recommendations on the go-to-market strategy for new product and new market segments.

Esther holds a Bachelor of Engineering in telecommunication engineering from Multimedia University, Malaysia, and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, Australia.

Sameer Ashfaq Malik

Senior Principal Analyst

Sameer joined Omdia in March 2021. His expertise includes 5G and transport, carrier network E2E solution design, enterprise strategy, IoT smart city, AI-based network orchestrations and automation, and SDN. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the industry, including leadership positions at Huawei, ZTE, and Etisalat.

Most recently, Sameer was responsible for ICT network solutions business development at Huawei for the APAC region. His projects included engaging with carrier planning, strategy, and C-suite groups. He authored many articles and contributed to the ITUT 2016 state broadband report publication. Sameer has established carrier relationships around the globe. In 2019, he received the Huawei Service Provider Employee Ambassador award at company level and was the subject of a short documentary. In 2020, he was recognized as Distinguished Technical Talent by the Australian government. His family recently took up residency in Australia, where they are based in Sydney.

Ian Redpath

Research Director, Transport Networks and Components

Ian is the Research Director for Omdia’s, optical transport, components, routing, and networked edge services. He is responsible for strategy, client, product, and team development. Managing a team of communications technology professionals, he covers how communications and cloud service providers and enterprises utilize and deploy leading-edge optical networks, components, routing, and edge technologies.

Ian and the team have been advising clients on how to evolve and grow networks based on a rapidly evolving 5G, cloud, and edge world. Ian’s past advisory efforts have included work on the evolution of open optics and transport SDN, right of way value for new entrants, and cloud-communications SP partnering. He has also supported open industry fora, built hot topic conference tracks, and supported industry player mergers and acquisitions. Ian is the 2019 winner of the NGON & DCI World People’s Choice Award and is a regular speaker at industry events. He received his MBA from Queen's University at Kingston in Canada and a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba.