IAA Newsletters
Please save the date for IAA’s Annual General Meeting 2024.
Date: Wednesday, 30 October 2024
Time:
Perth 10:30am AWST
Darwin 12:00pm ACST
Brisbane 12:30pm AEST
Adelaide 1:00pm ACDT
Sydney | Melbourne | Canberra | Hobart 1:30pm AEDT
Location: Via Zoom
We will share the official notifications, nominations, reports and registrations soon.
We hope you can join us!
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Online events
In July, we held our second online discussion, Upgrade Time!, featuring experienced network engineering specialists, Matthew Enger (Leaptel) and Nick Pratley (IAA). Together they explored the challenges of integrating a next generation kit with your existing installed base.
Two years ago, Matt presented a session on starting an ISP on a shoestring. In this session, he shared insight into the challenges he’s had in remaking that network as his ISP has grown, particularly where he has found the amazing loads his cheap and cheerful equipment has managed to carry. Nick added to the discussion, drawing upon his years of experience at the coal face of IXPs, comparing the ideal with the invariable reality as he talked through the levels of testing and evaluation IAA went through in its latest switch upgrades.
Once again, our CEO, Narelle Clark, expertly moderated the session, and we thank her and our speakers for an enlightening discussion.
Those who would love a second chance to see this online presentation, can now check it out on our IAA YouTube Channel!
In-person
We also hosted IAA Convergent In-person socials. First off was Perth where we took in the serene ambience of Terrarium in the city. As always, the crowd was mighty as Perth folks turned up for an evening of comparing notes and just enjoying each other’s company! Likewise in Brisbane, an excellent crowd of Members summoned up their Dutch Courage for a fabulous evening of gin tasting, canapés and great company. It’s always a pleasure to host our Members and guests at these in-person events, share news and hear all about what you’ve been up to.
We look forward to seeing you at the next one!
We’re pleased to share some photos from these fun-filled events:
Coming up
There are still more IAA Convergent events to come. We hope you can make them.
IAA Convergent Adelaide
IAA Members and their guests are invited to take a pre-completion tour of our forthcoming newest PoP, NEXTDC’s A1. It’s always fun to have a good look at a data centre under construction, and this one shouldn’t disappoint. Then, it’s over to The Elephant for an evening of drinks, canapés, and camaraderie at this popular British-style pub.
Date: Wednesday, 14 August 2024
Tour: A1 Adelaide | 211 Pirie St | Adelaide
Time: From 5:15pm – Steel cap boots must be worn. Once registered we will contact you via email for your shoe size, should you need us to provide boots for the tour.
Social: The Elephant British Pub | The West Room | 1 Cinema Pl | Adelaide
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm ACST
IAA Convergent Canberra – Special 10th Anniversary Celebration!
IAA Members and your guests are invited to an evening of cocktails and canapés as we mark a decade of connectivity with ACT-IX! Enjoy delicious drinks, tasty bites, and perhaps even a chance to learn some mixology magic.
Date: Wednesday, 25 September 2024
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm AEST
Venue: Blue Eyes | Level 1 | Garema Pl | Canberra
IAA Members can register themselves and their guests via the IAA Member Portal.
By RSVPing, you are agreeing to comply with IAA’s Code of Conduct – Events.
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Our End of Year Events are always a highlight of the team’s calendar, and this year will be no exception. We look forward to hosting one in a city near you soon and hope you can make it.
Hobart – Wednesday, 6 November, Venue TBC
Sydney – Wednesday, 13 November, Flight Club Sydney
Melbourne – Wednesday, 20 November, Oche Melbourne
Adelaide – Tuesday, 26 November, Archie Brothers Rundle Place
Perth – Thursday, 28 November, B. Lucky & Sons, Forrest Chase
Brisbane – Wednesday, 4 December, B. Lucky & Sons, Fortitude Valley
Look out for more details and calls for registration on the IAA Members Portal Events page soon!
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This September we’ll be heading to Sydney to host our fourth annual IAASysters Workshop. Once again, the program will be held one day before AusNOG at the same venue, giving our latest squad of IAASysters the opportunity to attend the conference, take advantage of industry networking, learn the latest industry trends and receive in-depth technical training.
Speakers announced
We’re delighted to have assembled last year’s dream team of speakers once again: Cheryl Alderman, Jill McKay and Sally Foley Lewis. They will provide expert career advice and focus on building key skills that support career advancement.
Shout out to our sponsors!
We are thrilled to announce that the ranks of our sponsors have swelled since May’s Newsletter and we would like to take this opportunity to showcase our amazing lineup of industry sponsors. We greatly appreciate their support for our program. Thanks to you all!
We look forward to seeing you in Sydney !
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If you’re heading to AusNOG this year, join us for some pre-conference fun with Beer, Gear & Peer (BGP). We’re excited to sponsor this new pre-AusNOG event. Come enjoy a great selection of nibbles and beverages while you catch up with industry experts and grab exclusive swag.
Date: Wednesday, 4th September 2024
Time: 3:00pm – 5:00pm AEST
Venue: The Fullerton Hotel | The Barnet Room | 1 Martin Pl | Sydney
FREE entry for all AusNOG ticketholders.
Members attending AusNOG are invited to reserve their IAA-LAN hoodie.Pre-order your preferred unisex size hoodie via the IAA Member Portal now. But hurry, limited edition, so first come, first served!
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IAA would like to congratulate our Board Chair, Matthew Enger, who was recognised at the 2024 ACOMM Awards, winning the Communications Ambassador Award. This coveted award recognises outstanding individuals who show strong leadership and make a significant and visible contribution to the Australian communications industry.
The annual Australian Communications Industry Awards – the ACOMMS – recognise excellence in the wider communications industry. Hosted by Communications Alliance, the role of Communications Ambassador is considered the industry’s most prestigious accolade.
As Chair of our Board and Member of the NZIX Committee, we see how hard Matt works for our community and are thrilled that he has been recognised through this award.
The IAA Team attended the Awards Dinner in Sydney where the evening’s keynote address was delivered by the Federal Minister for Communications, The Hon. Michelle Rowland MP. It was a memorable evening, and we could not be more proud of Matt! Well done to all the winners!
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In May, our CEO, Narelle Clark, gave a presentation at the Data Centre Real Estate Summit in Sydney. Whilst data centres were once considered an alternative asset class, they are becoming more sought after by investors.
The Data Centre Real Estate Summit focused on real estate and investment strategies, bringing together all the key global and local players to discuss the national data centre market, new developments and acquisitions, supply and demand dynamics, construction, development, and design trends.
Narelle gave an informative and, by all accounts, entertaining talk on the evolution of data centre design and advancements in technology and solutions. Her insights underscored the critical role data centres play in today’s digital economy. She closed by putting the audience’s skills to the test, to see how good they were at identifying a data centre when they saw one.
Head to this IAA YouTube clip of the talk to test your skills.
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100G-LR optics offer for NSW-IX Members
We’re pleased to introduce single-lambda 100G-LR interfaces in select NSW-IX points of presence. This upgrade offers our Members a cost-optimised solution for 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) connectivity.
Here’s what you can expect:
Simplified Design, Lower Cost: 100G-LR uses a single-wavelength architecture, eliminating the need for complex and expensive optical designs found in older 100GbE technologies. This translates to a substantially lower total cost for transceivers.
Seamless Integration: Fully compatible with a wide range of routers and switches equipped with QSFP28 electrical interfaces, 100G-LR allows for easier network upgrades without significant hardware changes.
Future-Proofing for your Network: As demand for 100GbE grows, 100G-LR provides a scalable and efficient solution to meet your evolving bandwidth needs.
If you’re interested and connected to the NSW-IX contact support@internet.asn.au.
Compute stack renewal
After thoroughly evaluating virtualisation solutions, our tech team has successfully migrated our virtual machine (VM) infrastructure to a Proxmox virtual environment. Transitioning to the advanced open-source virtualisation platform demonstrates IAA’s commitment to reliable, efficient, and scalable services for our Members. Of course the price comparison between VMWare and an open source solution was pretty favourable too!
Here are the key benefits of Proxmox for Members:
- High availability and minimal downtime.
- Greater efficiency, as it’s easier for our engineering teams to provision, monitor and maintain VMs.
- Scalability of our virtual infrastructure to meet Members’ growing demands.
- Customisation to meet specific needs with access to the latest features and security enhancements for future-proofing.
Our tech team will continue to innovate and enhance our services to provide you with the best experience possible. Of course, Nick also enjoyed taking the system apart and rebuilding it afresh!
Equinix SY3 - extreme makeover edition
Confession time! IAA had a dirty little secret: Equinix SY3. A tangled mess of cross connects well over 10 years old. As you can see in the before photo from 2020 there was an ugly number of low-density SC panels, as well as an old Cisco 2901 used for OOB purposes. The pièce de résistance was the stacked Extreme x670s, prone to crashing spectacularly (see the notorious Incident Report of 25 February 2021), which subsequently led to the stack’s removal (as detailed in this Scheduled Maintenance Report).
Then, this year, our intrepid tech engineers (namely Aaron) embarked on an ambitious mission to clean up the rack. They boldly removed the final x670, deftly mass-migrated peers off that box, and permanently deleted the SC panels! The rack has now been tamed!
As the connoisseurs amongst us will attest, there is still a bit of work to do to achieve perfect cabling order, such as better cable bars, proper cable lengths, replacing the 100G CR4s with LR1s or CWDM4s, and moving the higher-density LC panels further up. Regardless, we’re proud to declare that the rack is ready to welcome a shiny new Arista to our 800Gbps core.
Mission accomplished!
