The Oracle Dyn team behind this blog have frequently covered ‘network availability’ in our blog posts and Twitter updates, and it has become a common topic of discussion after natural disasters (like hurricanes), man-made problems (including fiber cuts), and political instability (such as the Arab Spring protests). But what does it really mean for the Internet to be “available”? Since the Internet is defined as a network of networks, there are various levels of availability that need to be considered. How does the (un)availability of various networks impact an end user’s experience, and their ability to access the content or applications that they are interested in? How can this availability be measured and monitored?

Deriving Insight From BGP Data

Many Tweets from @DynResearch feature graphs similar to this one, which was included in a September 20 post that noted “Internet connectivity in #PuertoRico hangs by a thread due to effects of #HurricaneMaria.”

There are two graphs shown — “Unstable Networks” and “Number of Available Networks”, and the underlying source of information for those graphs is noted to be BGP Data. The Internet analysis team at Oracle Dyn collects routing information in over 700 locations around the world, giving us Continue reading

Devastation caused by several storms during the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has been significant, as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria destroyed property and took lives across a number of Caribbean island nations, as well as Texas and Florida in the United States. The strength of these storms has made timely communication of information all the more important, from evacuation orders, to pleas for help and related coordination among first responders and civilian rescuers, to insight into open shelters, fuel stations, and grocery stores. The Internet has become a critical component of this communication, with mobile weather applications providing real-time insight into storm conditions and locations, social media tools like Facebook and Twitter used to contact loved ones or ask for assistance, “walkie talkie” apps like Zello used to coordinate rescue efforts, and “gas tracker” apps like GasBuddy used to crowdsource information about open fuel stations, gas availability, and current prices.

As the Internet has come to play a more pivotal role here, the availability and performance of Internet services has become more important as well.  While some “core” Internet components remained available during these storms thanks to hardened data center infrastructure, backup power generators, and comprehensive disaster planning, local infrastructure Continue reading

The term “break[ing] the Internet” has taken hold over the last few years – it sounds significant, and given the role that the Internet has come to play in our daily lives, even a little scary. A Google search for “break the Internet” returns 14.6 million results, while “broke the Internet” returns just under a half million results.

Interestingly, Google Trends shows a spike in searches for the term in November 2014 (arguably representing its entry into mainstream usage), coincident with Kim Kardashian’s appearance in Paper Magazine, and on the magazine’s Web site. (Warning: NSFW) To that end, Time Magazine says “But in the context of viral media content, ‘breaking the Internet’ means engineering one story to dominate Facebook and Twitter at the expense of more newsworthy things.” Presumably in celebration of those efforts, there’s even now a “Break the Internet” Webby Award.

“Breaking the Internet” in this context represents, at best, the failure of a website to do sufficient capacity planning, such as using a content delivery network (CDN) to help improve the scalability and performance of the Web site in the face of increased traffic from a flash crowd from the viral Continue reading