- WARIAN delivers cloud and network solutions via its independent backbone across Europe and Latin America.
- At RIPE 90, CEO Alfredo Giordano stressed digital sovereignty and regional innovation.
In this special BTW Media Podcast episode recorded live at RIPE 90 in Lisbon, Eva Li speaks with Alfredo Giordano, CEO of WARIAN, a leading Italian provider of managed infrastructure and cloud solutions. With over a decade of experience delivering high-performance connectivity across Europe and Latin America, WARIAN is at the forefront of reshaping digital infrastructure. This conversation explores how WARIAN combines independent infrastructure with end-to-end managed services, its contributions to Italy and Europe’s telecom and IT sectors, and the broader challenges and opportunities facing European digital sovereignty today.
WARIAN, with over a decade of experience, operates a fully independent IP backbone with DWDM-enabled PoPs across Italy, five in Europe, and one in Latin America. Their cloud-native managed services, delivered through their proprietary AnyCLOUD platform, are helping reshape how enterprises, ISPs, and data centres operate in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Also read: Worry and concern in ICP-2 discussions at RIPE 90
Alfredo Giordano’s journey from a classical education to engineering and international experience in the United States and the Caribbean has culminated in his role as CEO of WARIAN since 2011. His unique blend of technical expertise and humanistic perspective drives WARIAN’s mission to innovate in the telecom and IT sectors. Under his leadership, WARIAN has developed proprietary infrastructure and services that empower clients across Europe and Latin America, reinforcing the company’s position as a key player in advancing digital infrastructure.
Q1: Can you briefly introduce WARIAN’s core business and what sets your cloud and connectivity solutions apart in the market?
As you might already know WARIAN operates as a Managed Infrastructure Provider delivering end‑to‑end cloud and connectivity solutions over its fully independent national and international IP backbone. We do a lot of stuff, but if I really need to summarise I would say that our core business comprises two pillars: First, Independent High‑Performance network: We have built a carrier‑class backbone with DWDM‑enabled PoPs across Italy, 5 EU and 1 LATAM PoPs that delivers ultra‑low latency and high availability, tailored specifically for cloud‑centric applications. Secondly, Cloud‑Native, Fully Managed Services: Leveraging our AnyCLOUD platform, we provide turnkey virtualisation and managed services covering compute, storage, networking, security, DNS, backup and disaster‑recovery—backed by 24/7 monitoring and a single point of contact for support.
What sets us apart, as you say I call it added value is our end‑to‑end ownership, from the physical link all the way up to the application stack, and our deep network virtualisation (MPLS, VXLAN) that lets us to build fully tailored services and allows partners and customers to scale without investing in large technical teams or capital‑intensive equipment.
“We actually build the infrastructure from the scratch
Alfredo Giordano, WARIAN CEO
and we control it end to end”
Q2: So can you tell a bit more about your impact, especially within the telecom and IT infrastructure sectors in Italy and across Europe? Could you share any notable achievements or examples?
Regarding our contribution to Telecom and IT Infrastructure probably the must valuable contribution is the infrastructure itself. Since our founding, we have delivered a truly independent backbone in Italy, connecting major urban centres to Europe through our edge capacity. Nowadays this infrastructure underpins critical services for dozens of ISPs, datacenter and enterprises. Through AnyNET, our wholesale Ethernet solution, we enabled operators -even those with minimal infrastructure- to tap into our national backbone, abstracting physical links and offering point‑to‑multipoint connectivity across all major Italian provinces.
We actively sponsor and participate in MANRS, MIX, NAMEX AMS-IX and RIPE NCC initiatives among others, fostering best practices in routing security and peering. To date, we peer directly with nearly 1200 networks, improving Internet resilience across Europe.
“Our independent backbone now underpins critical services for dozens of ISPs, data centres, and enterprises, while our peering with nearly 1,200 networks strengthens internet resilience across Europe.”
Alfredo Giordano, WARIAN CEO
Q3: Given your experience in the field, what do you see as the biggest challenges facing Europe’s digital infrastructure today?
That’s a tought question. Recently every day has become a challenge in our market. Specially with respect to other regions. Because of geo-political tension Europe’s digital infra is facing fragmentation & investment gaps. The EU’s national markets hinder scaling innovation for pan‑European investment; per‑capita telecom investment remains below US levels, but, more than everything, there is no attention to the public procurement for EU companies leading a lot of revenue streams to land in the US.
Other than that the market is facing issues that are common to other markets like rising energy demand and cost, cybersecurity threats etc. Some of them might be temporary some other are here to stay INMHO.
Last but not least I have the personal idea that digital sovereignty & supply‑chain are becoming a serious risk for EU if you consider that over 90 % of European data resides in non‑EU clouds. This is starting to raise privacy and resilience concerns; WARIAN as a local infrastructure provider must really fill this gap at this point. We do our best to do that expressing the best of our value. Beside the already mentioned End‑to‑End control that ensures us performance, security and energy efficiency for European workloads we thend to develop services that are modular, scalable & customisable trough our virtualised fabrics and managed cloud services. Local sovereignty and a sustainable vision complete our roadmap aligning us to the targets of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act and Green Deal.
“With over 90% of European data stored in non-EU clouds, digital sovereignty has become a serious risk—one WARIAN is committed to addressing through secure, scalable, and locally managed infrastructure.”
Alfredo Giordano, WARIAN CEO
Q4: Now bringing it back to RIPE 90—what has your experience been like here, and what does this event mean for companies like WARIAN?
Attending a RIPE meeting has always been a growth driver for my company. For personal reason I have been missing 3 in a row and RIPE 90 in Lisbon has reaffirmed to me the power of community‑driven collaboration. Besides the Cutting‑Edge Working Group sessions, engaging with fellow ISPs, IXP operators and equipment vendors opened dialogues on emerging technologies, standards and opportunities for new peering exchanges. Long story short RIPE meetings catalyse technology transfer, strengthen our industry partnerships but more than everything I think that they help us validate WARIAN’s roadmap against the collective expertise of the global networking community.
“RIPE meetings catalyse technology transfer and help validate WARIAN’s roadmap against the collective expertise of the global networking community.”
Alfredo Giordano, WARIAN CEO
What’s Next for WARIAN?
With a continued focus on sustainable, scalable, and sovereign digital infrastructure, WARIAN is positioning itself to play a central role in Europe’s digital transformation. Their roadmap aligns with both the EU’s Gigabit Infrastructure Act and Green Deal—delivering performance, security, and sustainability for the next generation of cloud infrastructure.
