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Route server configuration times reduced considerably

We have completed deployment of our local (non-authoritative) Internet Route Registry (IRR) mirror, which has already yielded some impressive benefits for members. 

Route server configuration generation and update times have been cut from approximately 15 minutes to approximately one minute. These times apply to the removal of prefix-set expansion from configuration updates as we currently do not filter on prefix-sets. But even with prefix-set generation included, the generation and update times are now only about 5 minutes – this is one-third of what they used to be! 

Additionally, generation/update runs are no longer failing due to connectivity issues or rate limiting by upstream IRR database providers. This was a consistent issue we were running into, especially when an out-of-cycle update was requested by a member to incorporate a change to their allowed ASNs or prefixes. 

Power remediation works completed at QV1

We successfully completed power remediation works at QV1 on 18 October, following several power disruptions to the facility in recent months. Over what seemed like a never–ending night we installed a new UPS with better monitoring, a new automatic transfer switch and a new mechanical bypass for the UPS, as well as additional improvements to the redundancy of power feeds to each rack to eliminate single points of failure. This new equipment and configuration are designed to ensure a reliable source of power to all racks in the WA–IX room during power disruptions to the wider QV1 building. We thank everyone for their patience in waiting for this work to happen, but we wanted to make sure it went in right, which of course meant appropriate supervision of the work as it happened. 

Speeches, cake cutting and socialising – must be the WA-IX event!

To quote Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, ‘Oh, what a night’. Thank you to all who came and celebrated an incredible milestone – 25 years! The evening began with the AGM and quickly moved into the more informal, celebratory portion – WA-IX’s 25th birthday celebration. With a great turnout, we enjoyed the opening remarks from our wonderful CEO, Narelle Clark, followed by a very passionate Welcome to Country delivered by Elder Len Collard – we even received a traditional emblem showing permission for IAA to operate on Whadjuk Nyungar country. Chief Digital Officer Jonas Petersen from the WA Government soon followed with a great speech, finishing off with the incredible Michael Malone talking about WAIA and WA-IX and what it meant for the fledgeling ISP industry.    

The evening buzzed with excitement, and food and drinks continued to flow until the big, delicious WA-IX cake was cut. Michael Malone, Narelle Clark, Anna Protoolis, James Bromberger and Mark Dignam gathered around and finished marking the celebration as they all cut it together.  The evening ended with a couple of special mentions and went straight back into lively chatter. It really was a wonderful celebration, and we hope you all enjoyed it – event photos are now available to view in the Photo Gallery.  

Cheers to 25 years!  

IAA board members posing for a photo

Latest news from the Board Strategy Workshop

Since we were fortunate enough to have almost the entire Board present at the events, we thought we would slot in a Board Strategy Workshop where we could bring together all the great ideas of the Board and staff, and start making plans for the next year and beyond.  

The day started with a Board meeting that saw Matthew Enger re-appointed as Chair and Brett O’Hara re-appointed as Deputy Chair – congratulations, fellas; we are very appreciative of your hard work. It then continued into very fruitful discussions about much of what we do.  Watch this space, members; there is much to look forward to! 

IAA staff members at a strategy session

What happened at the Staff Day?

Working remotely from home and being spread across 3 states and at times several countries can be a convenient way to work, but it’s always nice to meet the people you chat to on screen. Our team (well, most of us) was lucky enough to enjoy a day together. It started with a very productive planning session; we worked through all the things we would like the future rollouts of the portal to include, and ended with a tour of the QV1 basement: home to some of WA-IX’s equipment, and our point of origin.  

The day continued with a very competitive and adrenalin-filled go-karting session, bringing out the inner drifter and thrill seeker in most of the staff. After plenty of laughs, a few minor crashes and a group photo, we moved on to enjoy the late afternoon in the sun playing a few games of lawn bowls. 

 

 

 

WiTWA Tech [+] Conference 2022

This year the incredible Women in Technology WA (WiTWA) team are once again running their annual Tech [+] Conference and Awards events. We are proud to be supporting this event as Silver sponsors and would like to invite members to check out these events. The theme this year is ‘Driving sustainable change’ and includes a great line-up of speakers.  

The Tech [+] Conference is WiTWA’s unique offering to the WA tech [+] community. Spend a day meeting WiTWA role models, members, community, and supporters while enjoying the sessions delivered by prominent national and international speakers.  

Date: Thursday, 17 November 2022
Time: 8:00am – 5:45pm (followed by networking drinks)
Location: Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre 

The Tech [+] Awards night takes place the following day in the evening and was created to shine a light on diversity, equity and inclusivity for women who work in tech roles and organisations involved with education advocacy and research in technology-related fields.
Date: Friday, 18 November 2022
Time: 6:45pm – midnight
Location: Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre 

If you would like to attend one or both of these fantastic events, please head to the WitWA website for more details or to purchase tickets.  

From the CEO’s Desk

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for this year’s AGM, whether online or in person. The event to mark WA-IX’s 25th went off really well, with many good catch-ups and even some scrumptious cake. It was lovely to see a number of our founders in person again and hear the recognition from government, so it was a fantastic celebration of our 25 plus years of operation. The board and staff also attended strategic planning sessions, so it was a very productive time all round. Nick even managed to supervise some electrical remediation work to sort out the UPS in QV1, and even roped in our Company Secretary to clean out some old gear from there, too! Never waste a moment, or a helper.

As usual, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the regulation coming through. The legislation to modify the penalties and powers for data breaches has been introduced to parliament, with the penalties being proposed as the greater of $50 million, 3 times the benefit obtained by the conduct, or 30% of turnover. This looks to be likely to go through without real consultation or debate, given the extremes of the recent breaches we’ve seen. These penalties are definitely on the hefty side, so should certainly act as a strong deterrent, but are they sufficient incentive for good behaviour? Time will tell…

The updated Federal budget also came through this week with some cash allocated to mobile networks and NBN remediation, which is certainly good to see given the poor performing technology they have in place. Some other initiatives on digital literacy were noted and the additional training places will also be useful to our industry.

After a successful NetThing last week, we’re pulling together our last events for the year too, so if we don’t see you online at the ‘Keep Ukraine Connected’ session, I look forward to seeing you at one of the socials. Happy Networking!

Narelle

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