A Conversation With Metaswitch's Kevin DeNuccio

After a long career in enterprise networking, including stints at Cisco Inc. (CSCO) (as senior vice president of the service provider division), and at Redback Networks (an edge router vendor that under his management was sold in 2006 to Ericsson (ERIC), for $2.1 billion), Kevin DeNuccio this week was named CEO of Metaswitch Networks, a leading provider of softswitches and application software platforms to service providers and carriers. DeNuccio has been a Metaswitch board member for two years. Replacing John Lazar, who moves up to become chairman, DeNuccio has been charged with guiding the U.K. company through a period of rapid growth and global expansion. He talked with VON editor Richard Martin about the challenges ahead, for Metaswitch and for the industry.

DeNuccio: It's not easy being IP.

VON: Can you talk about what led you to move from a director’s chair to the CEO’s office?

Kevin DeNuccio: I’m very excited about the opportunity in front of us as a company. John and I have grown in our relationship, and we’ve carved out a unique niche for Metaswitch. The company has become a player in the industry that’s badly needed, and that has been able to achieve a long-term competitive advantage, with its deep voice and IP expertise.

It’s not only a unique time in the industry but one when a company like Metaswitch, of substantial size and profitability, is on the cusp of a sharp growth curve, with the chance to expand the business we already have – four or five hundred carriers to build the business off of, and supplying software to hundreds of telecom equipment manufacturers. We’ve proven the company’s depth and its ability to provide high-quality, difficult products that many in the industry struggle with today.

VON: You’ve mentioned expanding globally and in terms of your product line. Can you elaborate on that?

KD: We do plan to expand globally and we’ve already started to do that with our moves in Latin America, for instance. But we have a large customer base, and we want to continue to expand our product line to provide them with new functionality and new features to, and also grow the next-generation kinds of products we see needed in the network.

At the same time, the company’s heft in North America has become more important. We already have a significant presence here, with one-third of our employees in North America. With that level of business, we’re feeling that a more heavyweight structure will do well there as we move up-market into the Tier 1 space.

IP Is Really Hard

We’re not thinking we should move our U.K. operations to the U.S. The balance of the two is important. We’re taking that strong base we’ve got in North America global, so that we’re creating a global sales force in able to take the products we sell around the world.

VON: Do you see your career to date as reflecting broader trends in the industry?

KD: I don’t know if there’s any continuity with the industry. What it has given me is an enormous appreciation for how difficult IP is. After Cisco, you’ve seen so many companies fail at it, and I got even more appreciation for it at Redback. That’s something I cherish in the industry, it’s very rare, and it’s obviously central to the success of telecom in the future.