Game of Maintenance: New Challenges for Network Uptime

According to the most recent Sandvine Internet Phenomena report, streaming video now accounts for over 70% of peak downstream internet traffic in North America. Of that, more than a third of the bandwidth is consumed by Netflix alone. As for upstream traffic, popular cloud services like Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive are chewing up the majority.

The point is, today’s IP infrastructure is getting hammered up and down, around the clock — and according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, broadband activity is only going to intensify in the coming years. In 2010, a little over 20 exabytes (20,000 petabytes) of IP traffic travelled over North American networks and Cisco estimates traffic in 2016 will exceed a zettabyte (1000 exabytes). That number will likely more than double by 2020 leading Cisco to predict that, globally, we’re likely to measure 100-fold growth in IP traffic between 2005 and 2020.

Besides keeping pace with the needs of data hungry users and applications, the challenge for network providers is compounded by the myriad of network types, access device types and new hardware demands. But while end users may find the data consumption numbers and network growth challenges fascinating, they still want to be able to watch Game of Thrones from their cell phones on a transatlantic flight just as seamlessly as if they were sitting in their living rooms. 

As a result of all of this, today’s networks need to be faster, more reliable and more efficient at all hours of the day and night than ever before. That means no more taking systems offline for maintenance in the wee hours and no more midnight hotfixes. In this perpetually streaming environment we’ve created, the network needs to be up and performing at peak 24/7/365.

Although air filters only represents one component of the 24-hour streaming puzzle, we know that proper maintenance can mean the difference between network tranquility and all out chaos. Having the right filters, at the right time, delivered in a convenient manner for your equipment and basing your change schedule on Industry Standards are the critical first steps towards minimizing downtime and keeping us all engaged on who controls the Iron Throne. Contact us today and we can help you come up with strategies and solutions that are tailored to your particular network. We’re waiting by the phone – at least we are until season 7 of Game of Thrones kicks off.