DataBytes: Internet Uptime Holds Firm During the Pandemic

Aug. 31, 2020
Data Bytes: The Internet performed just fine during the early months of the  COVID-19 pandemic, with “little evidence of systemic network duress, even when traffic shifts and volumes were at their peak,” according to ThousandEyes.

Data Bytes is a weekly roundup of research and analysis for the data center and cloud computing sector.  Want to get it in your Inbox every Monday? Sign up for our DCF news updates

The Internet performed just fine during the early months of the  COVID-19 pandemic, with outage monitoring showing “little evidence of systemic network duress, even when traffic shifts and volumes were at their peak,” according to network intelligence firm ThousandEyes.

The biggest challenge was not the large spike in network traffic as the pandemic prompted stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies, generating a surge in remote work and media consumption. Instead, the primary reliability challenges were network tweaks as service providers added capacity and flexibility to their networks.

“An initially concerning rise in network disruptions post-pandemic (~63% increase post-February) was found, upon closer inspection, to have the hallmarks of traffic engineering activity, which reportedly increased amongst providers in order to meet changing service demands,” wrote Angelique Medina on the ThousandEyes blog. “In most regions, however, network disruptions are now at, or near, pre-pandemic levels, suggesting that the temporary increase was the result of a necessary adaptation by providers, enabling them to successfully scale capacity and demonstrate their operational agility to meet unforeseen conditions.

“Despite early fear and speculation immediately following pandemic-related lockdowns, the state of the Internet was and remains healthy, with our network measurements (taken via active probing) showing little evidence of systemic network duress, even when traffic shifts and volumes were at their peak. With few exceptions, Internet-related infrastructures over the last six months have held up well.”

Cloud computing providers were strong performers on uptime. Between January and July 2020, cloud providers had about 400 outages, versus more than 4,500 in ISP networks (excluding China). “The purpose-built, software-defined networks employed by the cloud providers may be at least one of the reasons behind this resiliency advantage,” ThousandEyes reported.

“CDN and managed DNS providers experienced few network-related disruptions during the first half of 2020, and when they did occur, within CDN providers specifically, their pattern suggested maintenance events or automation-gone-awry, rather than a systemic performance issue (e.g. network congestion),” the report noted. “For public DNS services, fluctuating patterns of longer and shorter resolution times between weekdays and weekends, appeared to be related to changing usage due to workers moving from offices to the home environment. Overall, however, it’s important to note that DNS providers performed consistently, with response times staying within reasonable limits for reliable user experience. As is the case with the CDN providers, managed DNS providers experienced few outages within their networks.”

ThousandEyes, which recently became part of Cisco, has published an infographic summarizing its findings.

Note: The study was published prior to Sunday’s major outage at CenturyLink/Level 3. For more on that event, see an analysis from CloudFlare and news coverage at The Register and ZDNet. The ThousandEyes team will discuss the CenturyLink outage on the upcoming edition of The Internet Report podcast, which is a useful resource if you’re interested in outages and uptime.

About the Author

Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

Sponsored Recommendations

Guide to Environmental Sustainability Metrics for Data Centers

Unlock the power of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting in the data center industry with our comprehensive guide, proposing 28 key metrics across five categories...

The AI Disruption: Challenges and Guidance for Data Center Design

From large training clusters to small edge inference servers, AI is becoming a larger percentage of data center workloads. Learn more.

A better approach to boost data center capacity – Supply capacity agreements

Explore a transformative approach to data center capacity planning with insights on supply capacity agreements, addressing the impact of COVID-19, the AI race, and the evolving...

How Modernizing Aging Data Center Infrastructure Improves Sustainability

Explore the path to improved sustainability in data centers by modernizing aging infrastructure, uncovering challenges, three effective approaches, and specific examples outlined...

iStock, courtesy of AFL

Hyperscale: The AI Tsunami

AFL's Alan Keizer and Keith Sullivan explore how AI is driving change and creating challenges for data centers.

White Papers

Dcf A10 Sr Cover 2023 01 17 14 23 57
Dcf A10 Sr Cover 2023 01 17 14 23 57
Dcf A10 Sr Cover 2023 01 17 14 23 57
Dcf A10 Sr Cover 2023 01 17 14 23 57
Dcf A10 Sr Cover 2023 01 17 14 23 57

The Security Gap: DDoS Protection in a Connected World

Jan. 18, 2023
The world is in love with connectivity, but it comes with a whole host of challenges for data centers. As customers continue to shift to the cloud and colocation services, security...