Podcast

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.

What is a WAN?

Welcome back to TeleGeography Explains the Internet. We've reached the finale of our five-part series that makes good on our name, literally explaining the ins and outs of the interwebs.

Over the past five weeks, we've endeavored to explain precisely how data moves around the world, covering the basics of internet, transport networks, data centers, and the cloud along the way.

Today we answer the lingering question: What is a WAN?

What is the Cloud?

Welcome back to our five-part podcast special that seeks to demystify the internet. 

Our last episode focused on data centers, but we didn’t get into what happens on the rows and rows of servers you would find in those facilities.

So today we're explaining the cloud.

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.

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.

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.

Wi-Fi 6 Afraid of 7?

On TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we often focus on the long-haul, zeroing in on the network portion of telecoms. Today, with the help of Tiago Rodrigues, President and CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), we’re switching things up a bit.

Drawing upon his vast expertise in the Wi-Fi space, Tiago steps into the hot seat to outline the key issues in the wireless LAN.

Head in the Cloud, Toes at the Edge

I'm back with a new episode of TeleGeography Explains the Internet.

In the hot seat this time: Nokia's Paul Unbehagen. Paul has a deep history in the networking world, so he approaches his role at Nokia—NE Americas CTO—from the perspective of a network engineer.

Although our main topics this week are enterprise cloud and right-sizing cloud utilization, we use those as a springboard into many topics circling the state of the network in 2023.

Why 4G Is Still Relevant for Enterprise Connectivity

This week on TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we welcome SmartCIC CEO Toby Forman to the show.

How Geography Influences Network Security

Today’s TeleGeography Explains the Internet guest comes to the security world with a deep background in cloud and networks.

Joe DePalo is Chief Platform Officer at Netskope, and the ideal person to help us understand how and why location matters in network security.