Networks

Mar 15, 2024

Beyond the Red Sea Blues: West Africa Faces Fresh Cable Faults

As if three cable faults in the Red Sea weren’t enough of a headache, a series of West African cables were damaged on March 14.

The precise location and cause of all of these faults are not known at this time, but let’s look at what we do know.

Mar 14, 2024

Explaining the Internet Through the Lifecycle of a YouTube Video

Last week, we wrapped up a five-part podcast special that literally explains how the internet works.

This series describes precisely how data moves around the world, covering the basics of internettransport networksdata centers, the cloud, and WAN along the way.

At the end of each episode, I thought it would be fun to relate what we talked about to a real world example: the lifecycle of a YouTube video.

To paint the full picture, I've compiled each piece of the story here. Keep reading to find out how a video goes from one camera to millions of screens around the world.

Mar 13, 2024

Red Sea Roundup: Five Articles Worth Reading

This month, we’ve seen countless headlines swirling about Houthi attacks and submarine cable faults in the Red Sea.

With so much press activity, it can be tough to distinguish fact from rumor. To help you cut through the noise, here are some resources that our team recommends reading/watching.

Mar 12, 2024

The Data Center Market Blazes a New Trail

When it comes to the nature of exploration, there are typically a number of underlying forces at play, some positive and some negative.

The “pioneering spirit” could be inspired by the excitement of new opportunities, or by the pressure of existing difficulties.

The data center market happens to be dealing with both of those sentiments right now, with several factors driving it to new places.

Mar 5, 2024

What We Know (And Don't) About Multiple Cable Faults in the Red Sea

We recently wrote about how Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are causing headaches for the undersea cable industry.

Since then, the industry has suffered three cable faults in the region.

Feb 23, 2024

Flashback Friday: Submarine Cable Repair in the 1980s

If you've read over our Submarine Cable Frequently Asked Questions, you know that cable faults are common. On average, there are over 100 each year.

Of course, as a society heavily dependent on these cables, we've gotten quite good at repairing them.

But what was the repair process like a few decades ago? How were we fixing cables back in the era of the Walkman?

Time for a trip down memory lane.

Feb 22, 2024

What Are Data Centers?

We're back at it with episode three of our five-part podcast special that explains the nuts and bolts of the internet.

You've come to the right place if you're looking to understand how all of those cat videos travel from the source to your phone. 

We explained in episode two how the internet is made of transport networks to carry data over (mostly) fiber optic wires distributed around the world. And in the episode before that, we discussed how the internet is a network of networks operated by thousands of mostly private companies.

But we haven’t yet covered exactly how and where those networks meet and exchange traffic with each other and access their destinations.

So today, it's data center time.

Feb 15, 2024

What is a Transport Network?

Welcome back to our five-part podcast special that literally explains how the internet you know and love works.

Last week we covered the most basic question: what is the internet?

Today, we tunnel deeper, exploring the physical transport networks behind this seemingly invisible, omnipresent information superhighway.

Feb 8, 2024

What is the Internet?

If you've caught TeleGeography's podcast, you'll know that we endeavor to explain the business behind human connection every week. We've chatted about Wi-Fi, WAN, and everything in between

We've audaciously called our show TeleGeography Explains the Internet, but we've never properly explained how the internet works and how bits get pushed around the globe. Until now.

That's right. We decided it was time to, quite literally, explain the internet.

Jan 25, 2024

Why Do You Need a New Network Security Posture?

“Enterprises have shifted connectivity to the internet, mostly with DIA. This changes the security environment away from private MPLS to the best-efforts public internet.”

Last week, Senior Manager of Enterprise Research Greg Bryan joined Ciena's Brian Lavallée for a live webinar all about submarine cables and security.

For his part, Greg described how the enterprise network has shifted in the last few years, how carriers and enterprises have responded to these changes, and why geography matters in network security.