CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK causes increase in Online traffic
The social distancing measures governments and companies have been making in the attempt to slow the spread of the Coronavirus have increased the amount of online traffic on networks around the world, but is there a risk of these systems being overwhelmed?
Outside of China, the biggest increase in traffic has been in Italy.
In China, more than 250 million people were almost immediately put under lockdown. In Europe, more than 100 million people are currently in lockdown, with several million more expected to face the same in the coming days and weeks.
The most dramatic changes have been in how and when people are using the internet, rather than an increase in overall traffic.
Worldwide, normal internet traffic spikes are around 7.30 pm, mainly driven by online streaming services but as different countries have brought in work-from-home recommendations, the peak in internet traffic has moved closer to the middle of the working day.
A spokesperson for Amazon Web Services (which provides the infrastructure for remote working tools such as Zoom and Slack) said they had already taken steps to prepare for an increase in demand. Whether any individual service can handle a big shift in usage patterns depends on how each service is architected, but speaking purely in terms of the internet’s capacity to handle more traffic, there’s enough to handle a much higher increase than what has been observed so far.
As more and more people are instructed to stay at home, data centres have become even more important to everyday life.
This is not the first (and certainly won’t be the last) time we face a global pandemic. Most businesses will not have gone through this before and many others will not have had any contingency plans in place. It is crucial that we learn from dealing with the coronavirus outbreak and put in place measures to ensure businesses could handle a similar situation in the future.
If you are concerned that any of your systems might develop a problem, our data centre consultants and engineers have expert knowledge in the running and upkeep of all systems and know exactly how often each unit should undergo maintenance in order to keep it running at peak efficiency and greatly reduce component failure.
As a data centre provider offering both consultancy and construction services, Infiniti can help offer
guidance and support on the best options for your business.
Have any questions or comments, or would like to know more about the
article and how we can help please contact us on 01993 774444 or email us enquiries@infiniti-it.co.uk
