Looking Through the Prism:
Intelligent Automation for Modern Networks
Networks are feeling the full force of AI-driven demand. Hyperscale data centers, cloud providers, and service operators are pushing fiber deployments harder than ever to feed low-latency
generative models, agentic systems, and edge workloads that consume bandwidth at unprecedented scale. At the same time, the underlying infrastructure remains stubbornly complex—multi-vendor
equipment spanning decades of technology generations, siloed management systems, tens of thousands of devices, and petabits of capacity that are often poorly understood or underutilized.
Operators face constant pressure to contain costs, maintain five-nines or six-nines reliability, navigate supply chain constraints, and move toward autonomous network operations without massive
rip-and-replace projects. The gap between raw network data and actionable intelligence has become one of the most expensive problems in the industry, demanding advanced optical network
observability and AI-driven network automation.
Simplifying Network Complexity
Pipeline recently had an opportunity to sit down with stakeholders at LightRiver including Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Operations Walt Paskowski, Senior Vice President of Software Solutions, Jim Brinksma, and Vice President of Software Product Management, Marcelo McAndrew, to explore how the company’s Prism® platform helps address the gap by translating network complexity
into clean, operational intelligence to prepare organizations for the shift to autonomous networking.
LightRiver has built its reputation on closing the network-complexity gap. As a premier network productivity solutions provider, the company focuses on making connectivity simple across
multi-vendor, multi-generational, multi-layer environments. Drawing on more than twenty-seven years of experience, LightRiver consults, commissions, automates, and optimizes networks for top-tier
telecom carriers, large ISPs, data center operators, cloud providers, enterprises, governments, and utilities. The goal is always the same: simplify complex networks to optimize operations. It
does this by leveraging existing assets to the fullest, reclaiming stranded capacity, reducing operational overhead, and enabling intelligent transformation toward fully autonomous networks.
Unlocking AI-Native Network Intelligence
Prism® is the latest evolution, presentation, and technical embodiment of LightRiver’s mission. Prism is an intelligent, user-friendly
network optimization platform that visualizes, controls, and optimizes optical networks across their entire lifecycle. It builds directly on the proven foundation of LightRiver’s netFLEX® automation platform—deployed successfully in communications service provider environments for two decades—and
evolves that capability with AI-native intelligence. Where earlier network management tools provided orchestration and automation, Prism delivers unified, real-time, and historical visibility
that turns fragmented data into decisions operators can trust, seamlessly supporting legacy and multi-vendor network management.
