KIERON O’BRIEN SPEAKS OF THE “OTHER INTERNET”
2007-05-10
Telecom Markets, Informa Newsletter 10th May 2007 – Over the past few years there has been a significant shift in people’s behaviour on the internet. A new generation of users – Me.com – has emerged; characterised by an addiction to instant gratification and an obsession with self-expression and internet fame. This shift has resulted in an anthropological change among users where new virtual societies and ways of communicating and interacting have been born.
These new breed of users are more than just teenagers chatting online in their bedrooms. These users are entrepreneurs of the future who are living and trading online through electronic alter-egos. This new ‘species‘ is stretching and challenging the internet in ways never imagine, acting as a catalyst for the success of new businesses never seen before such as MySpace and YouTube.
In light of this behavioral evolution, many believe a new era of the internet has truly begun. Broadband penetration has reached a tipping point with more users and businesses relying on the public internet than ever before. However behind the scenes, the public internet is showing serious signs of distress.
Will the internet be capable of delivering the service expected by the ‘internet savvy' generation in the next 10 years? Probably, but only if the industry addresses the current situation and pre-empts future shifts by matching demand with capable, flexible network services that provide a better alternative to the public internet for business critical transactions.
Warped Expectations
The internet was originally designed for academics by academics as a simple means to exchange raw data. However, due to the considerable costs associated with building and operating private networks in the 90‘s, businesses began to turn to the public internet as an alternative.
Even back in 2000, the public internet was being asked to do things it wasn‘t capable of. So with today‘s users‘ unquenchable thirst for rich media, it is no surprise that the public internet is being pushed completely outside of its comfort zone.
It is widely acknowledged by providers of internet technology that the growth in usage has not been paralleled by improvements in services, content delivery and connectivity. The industry has invested considerably in the web, but not the internet.
This lack of investment is also evident to consumers with greater concerns over online security issues, terminated connections and questions over the suitability of the public internet. These shortcomings are not only having a major impact on business, they are also seriously affecting consumer confidence in the web.
Software as a Service is also fueling the evolution of the internet by creating a significant shift in today‘s web model. One example is Google Apps Premier Edition, which allows subscribers to access Microsoft Office-like word processing and spreadsheet applications using their web browser. Although this offers greater convenience for business users, it also introduces further congestion, an increased likelihood of a security breach and a greater reliance on the public internet.
Again, there seems to be a complete disregard for what is supporting these front end applications of the internet. That there is so much innovation at the web level is great, but it is like building a house of cards. No matter what the business model, the underlying infrastructure of the internet must be sustainable.
Uploads, downloads, click-through advertisements and real-time transactions are key revenue generators and big business. With an average of 20-30 per cent packet loss due to public internet congestion, businesses simply cannot afford to rely on the current ‘hot potato‘ router system or the ‘send and pray‘ approach.
For instance, Bebo, one of the world’s largest social networking sites, recently took the decision to completely bypass the public internet to improve its overall website performance. Using the standard internet, it is not unusual for data packets to make as many as 20 network hops before they reach their destination, significantly increasing the opportunity for latency to be added and subsequently a poor end-user experience.
PacketExchange private network allowed Bebo‘s web server to connect directly with the user‘s ISP, decreasing the amount of network hops and improving latency by fifty percent. Bebo‘s users now benefit from both faster upload and download speeds, therefore encouraging longer session times and ultimately for Bebo, increased revenue from advertising.
Application sensitive networks
PacketExchange saw this movement emerge and has created an alternative to the public internet: application sensitive networks. Application sensitive networks encapsulate what we call the ‘Other Internet‘. This ‘Other Internet‘ concept involves a complete bypass of the public internet, which entails the partition and prioritizing of business critical traffic.
This approach guarantees 100% reliability and enables online organisations like Yahoo! and Bebo to create and sustain business models without the worries associated with today‘s public internet. While other asynchronous traffic like email, surfing and chat can freely travel over the public internet without competing with prioritized traffic.
This approach is not saying that public internet is irrelevant. It is merely accepting it wasn‘t made to do certain things. The emergence of application sensitive networks is simply the next chapter in the overall internet story - the next phase of evolution.
Today‘s public internet will no doubt continue to struggle. While the internet might not fall over completely, it is certainly in grave risk of slowing down. Unless there is further investment and greater effort to truly understand the main drivers behind internet behaviours, there will never be an opportunity to create an internet – public or private - that is capable of meeting the demands of the ‘internet savvy‘ generation in years to come.
