IAA Newsletters
After much speculation about the date, the election has finally been called and we are now in the longest election campaign for decades. While the media sit watching for gaffes and hunting for the most embarrassing candidate, the rest of us are left wondering whether we will see any real policy scrutiny. If a change in government comes, or if the pressure to appear tough on security lifts after the election, will we see any real change to the heavy hand of ineffective regulation largely enacted for appearance’s sake? Those of you who attended my AusNOG presentation will recall that I am not impressed with the state of our regulatory processes: we need to restore trust in government, and government needs to be worthy of that trust. Rest assured, I am banging on their doors to tell them ways to improve, and will be doing so again next week at the CommsDay Summit. Look out for our Election Wish List, which we will release soon.
Speaking of AusNOG, it was great to catch up with so many of you and to hear of all the great projects conducted by our members and others across the industry. Everyone looked great in the IAA hoodies as well! Our IAA Systers@AusNOG program went down really well, so look out for any future versions and possible sponsorship opportunities.
Sadly, also an AusNOG after event was marred by alleged bad behaviour and we thank the broader industry for your support in calling for change. The Australian Human Rights Commission study from 2018 reported that some 81% of employees in the information, media and telecommunications industry in the preceding five years had experienced sexual harassment at work. Compared with 42% in retail and 40% in mining. We clearly have an entrenched problem worse than other industries, and it’s utterly overdue this changed. We are working through what initiatives IAA can lead and what we want others to do. Either way, if you see harassment of any kind act to stop it, call it out as I did at AusNOG and protect your colleagues. We want this industry to be better so that all participants can enjoy and be productive in their working lives. Adherence to and promotion of codes of conduct are a good start, and stamping out this type of behaviour will go a long way to retaining great people within it.
On the technology front, seeing us crack 800Gbps last month means we really need to get moving on our upgrades! The team are putting some more kit through our rigorous test plan in the hope of identifying the right upgrade path to a 400Gbps core, and even 400Gbps services. If only the supply chains could fulfil orders… we’re still awaiting gear we ordered last year! Rest assured, however, we won’t be out of ports or hit congestion for some time, as we still have good headroom everywhere.
We’re also still working through our expansion options and trying to get a better understanding of what data centres are worth being in into the future. The newer ones are looking very attractive and are great pieces of construction and design. We partner with a number of them to provide services, so as you grow, we can grow into more locations. Don’t be afraid to let me know about your expansion plans or even just to bend my ear about how you’re weathering the industry storms!
Til next month
Narelle
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Dr Karen Lee, Senior Lecturer in the UTS Faculty of Law, is undertaking research into the ways in which service providers engage when codes of practice are drafted; and why industry participants choose to engage or disengage in code development.
Using the development of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code (C628: 2019) as a case study, the research seeks to identify the consultation mechanisms used; the difficulties encountered; the barriers to participation that industry participants of all sizes and business types might experience; the effect these mechanisms and barriers have on the code development process, and measures that might be taken to improve industry rule-making activities.
To schedule an interview with Dr Lee or for further information about the project (UTS ETH21-6356), please contact her at karen.lee@uts.edu.au.
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Last month, one of our staff members caught up with Diego Campagna – a founding member of WAIA who owned and operated Global Data Access Pty Ltd from 1994-1997 – one of Perth’s early Internet Service Providers (ISP). The company quickly expanded to Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Port Hedland and eventually merged with Starwon Internet. As an owner of a local ISP, Diego joined WAIA due to the heavy-handed regulation being proposed and subsequently exited the association as he moved away from the Internet industry.
When talking about WA-IX and its contribution to Australia’s Internet, Diego spoke about how the Internet industry has become a lot harder to survive in due to more prominent players and how having an established IXP like WA-IX would have made a difference to his business. He reminisced about his ISP, which suffered significant income losses due to black hole routing by a larger ISP over a bandwidth dispute. Unfortunately, in the mid ’90s, legislation wasn’t reasonably equipped to keep up with some of the technology around, and his business suffered severely.
These days, Diego is the Managing Director of Suburban Integration, a technology company specialising in audiovisual and security integration solutions travelling around WA doing what he is truly passionate about.
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We are excited to announce that in a few months’ time, we will be launching our brand new member portal! This portal is designed to enhance the user experience by being easy and intuitive. We will do our best to keep you up to date with what’s happening, so keep an eye on our newsletter and social media channels.
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What a great couple of days of learning, knowledge sharing and networking! With session topics ranging from RPKI to DDoS to regulation, the conference had something for everyone. Narelle’s session – Regulation, Schmegulation – began with the changing digital landscape and focused on four regulatory themes: security, privacy and data rights, NBN and online safety. She covered the concerns of disproportionate obligations and costs for industry, lack of oversight over government powers, clarity and guidance and more and finished with our election wish list.
Our booth was very popular this year, too! With the spin to win, popcorn and fairy floss cart, and an abundance of swag, we had many visitors and were so happy to see lots of IAA hoodies in the conference room. If you received some swag from us, please feel free to share a photo of it in use and send it to events@internet.asn.au
We are all looking forward to AusNOG 2022; we hope to see you all again in Melbourne in September.
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We are pleased to welcome Matthew Kobayashi, our newest Peering Engineer. Working with the tech team, he will be responsible for taking care of our network and assisting members with their technical enquiries.
Matthew has a career that consists of various roles within the telecommunications and networking sectors, including working for Optus, Superloop and Megaport. He also has previous experience driving heavy vehicles as a licensed road train driver and worked for Australia Post.
He also brings a passion for the Internet industry that started as he grew up and was fascinated by telephony and the evolving internet – wanting to understand exactly how our increasingly connected world worked under the hood, which still fascinates him to this day.
In his spare time, Matthew enjoys going to the movies, indulging in his love for motorcycles – particularly his current ride, a 2020 BMW S 1000 XR – and is a student pilot. Although we won’t see him flying in the sky just yet, as he says, it’s a very expensive hobby!
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Our engineers have been busy testing a new Arista 400Gbps switch with the preliminary results looking promising. If testing is successful, this new switch may be installed into our NSW-IX ring to increase capacity, and eventually make its way to our other IXes. Last month, you would have read about our 800Gbps milestone, and with traffic continuing to see steady growth rates across the network, we need a 400Gbps switch that provides flexibility and choice for large scale cloud, routing transformation, and hyperscale IO intensive applications.
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The IAASysters@AusNOG program finally took place! After being postponed twice last year, we were relieved that it happened in line with AusNOG this year as planned. The workshop was a full day of career planning, presentation and technical skills training delivered by prominent industry professionals. The vibe in the room was incredible, with participants actively engaging in all sessions and getting to know each other.
The feedback from attendees has been excellent, with one participant reporting they took what they learned in the workshop and at the networking opportunities that came from AusNOG, they made new contacts and practised pitching themselves to strangers!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors once again. Thank you, AusNOG, Vocus and Amazon Web Services, for your contributions to this fantastic program and supporting our efforts in supporting women in the Internet industry. If you are interested in opportunities to sponsor this program or would like to nominate a participant, please email events@internet.asn.au for more information. We are currently evaluating the program and considering future options.
