Seeking An Edge, Caribbean Firms Turn to Internet Tech

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados—As clouds of uncertainty loom over the global economy, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Caribbean companies. But these days, a different kind of cloud is creating fresh opportunities for regional businesses. For techies, the term ‘cloud’ is just a metaphor for the Internet. And the advent of Cloud Computing is creating new possibilities for businesses in the Caribbean and across the world.

Where in the past, businesses would run applications from a physical computer or server in their building, cloud computing provides a simple way to access servers, storage, databases, analytics and a broad set of application services over the Internet. Some of most recognizable names in the tech industry are among the major providers of cloud computing, including Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

“As more Caribbean companies confront the reality of rising costs for technology services, cloud computing is emerging as an attractive option for those seeking to reduce routine expenditure without compromising on competitiveness or service delivery capability,” said Bevil Wooding, an Internet Strategist with US-based non-profit organisation Packet Clearing House.

Wooding is the founder of the Caribbean Network Operators Group, or CaribNOG, the region’s first volunteer-based community of network engineers, computer security experts and tech aficionados. For the last few years, CaribNOG has been increasing region-wide awareness of cloud computing and other important issues related to technological innovation and regional development.

The CaribNOG community is preparing for its thirteenth regional gathering, to be held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados. Stephen Lee, CaribNOG Programme Director, said the meeting will have a strong focus on cloud computing.

“A slate of international experts will be on hand to deliver high-level presentations and conduct hands-on sessions covering technical, social and policy aspects of cloud computing,” he said.

It’s not the first time the event is taking place in Barbados, he added.

“CaribNOG 5 was held in Barbados in April 2013, and we’re very pleased to be able to return for CaribNOG 13, with the support of the Government of Barbados.”

Since 2010, the event has become a nexus for industry professionals from across the region and around the world seeking a forum to build relationships, exchange information and share experiences. For the uber-geeks who build, maintain, repair and upgrade the Caribbean’s computer networks, these twice-yearly meetings are among the most highly anticipated events on the regional calendar.

CaribNOG13 is being supported by regional partners such as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, and international partners, including ArkiTechs, the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), The BrightPath Foundation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society and Packet Clearing House.

Registration is free but spaces are limited. More information is available on the official CaribNOG website, caribnog.org.

Originally published: Caribbean Journal

In Guatemala, an Historic Meeting on Regional Internet

A historic gathering of diverse sectors of Guatemalan society recently took place in the country’s capital, hosted by the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry, commonly known as LACNIC.

The gathering, called LACNIC On The Move Guatemala, was the first of its kind in the nation. It brought together more than 100 delegates representing the country’s academic, technical, civil and government sectors for high-level talks and expert-led technical training.

Since its establishment in 2002, LACNIC has played a major role in developing an open, stable and secure Internet across Latin America and the Caribbean, relying on a range of initiatives to increase outreach into the 33 diverse nations that form its membership. But this was the Regional Internet Registry’s first such meeting in Guatemala.

Although it has the biggest economy in Central America, Guatemala is burdened with stark inequality, widespread poverty, chronic malnutrition and high maternal-child mortality rates, especially in rural municipalities, where up to eighty per cent are poor. Internet penetration hovers around 25 per cent, and subscriptions remain prohibitively expensive, compounding the digital divide.

Over three days from March 20 to 22, LACNIC On The Move Guatemala provided a rare chance for collaborative networking among members of the Guatemala’s technical community, including network operators, computer engineers, software developers and even members of competing Internet service providers, such as Tigo Guatemala, Telefónica Moviles Guatemala, UFINET and INTERTELCO. Among them were also representatives from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and Universidad Galileo.

The uncommon meeting of minds bore extraordinary fruit. Before the end of the second day, several participants expressed their commitment to work together towards the establishment of the country’s first Internet exchange point.

Guillermo Cicileo, Coordinator of Security, Stability and Resilience at LACNIC, said the agreement was “a milestone that will contribute to the development of the Internet in the country.”

An Internet exchange point, or IXP, is a piece of Internet infrastructure through which Internet service providers can exchange local Internet traffic between their networks. A local IXP would improve the quality and cost effectiveness of delivering local web-based services to Guatemalan Internet users, in turn a major benefit for local Internet service providers.

Alfredo Verderosa, Manager of the Services Department at LACNIC, described the meeting as an unprecedented success.

“We came with the objective of generating a meeting space between the different Internet-related actors in the country and at the same time sharing relevant information on technical topics such as Internet Governance, Internet Protocol switchover, Internet exchange points and cybersecurity. We leave with the feeling that this first-time event was very successful on both counts, because we noticed a great interest on the part of the participants to network among themselves and to learn more about the various technical topics covered,” he said.

Significantly, the conference gave multiple global Internet organisations an atypical opportunity to meet face to face with the men and women who build, maintain, regulate and use Guatemala’s Internet infrastructure. LACNIC held the event with the support of the Internet Society and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

“We’ve been doing events like this jointly for some time now, and that’s very much in the spirit of the Internet organisations in the region,” said Rodrigo de la Parra, Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean at ICANN.

“We are all good neighbours, so we just put that into practice,” he added.

What made the timing of the meeting all the more more special was that it coincided with the formal establishment of the Guatemala Chapter of the Internet Society.

Sebastián Bellagamba, Regional Bureau Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Internet Society, encouraged the new local chapter to continue working closely with other relevant organisations for the greater good of the local and regional Internet community.

Collaborative initiatives such as LACNIC On The Move have allowed LACNIC to provide training to more than 15,000 technology professionals throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean.

“We hope to continue working with other organisations in the region to continue to develope a more open, stable and secure Internet in Guatemala,” said Sergio Rojas, Registration Services Specialist at LACNIC.

“We would like to thank the ISOC Chapter of Guatemala and the national telecommunications regulator SIT for organizing this event together with LACNIC. We would also like to thank the Internet Society and the ICANN for working together on these issues that are of benefit to Guatemala and the region,” said César Diaz, Head of Strategic Relations and Telecommunications at LACNIC.

“We are very pleased to have hosted this event here in Guatemala,” countered José Raúl Solares Chíu, Head of SIT. He added, “And we hope that it will not be too long before LACNIC returns.”

The next LACNIC On The Move takes place in Guyana in July.

Originally published: Caribbean Journal

How Caribbean Networks Are Upgrading

Forward-thinking network operators in Latin America and the Caribbean are using the Internet’s next-generation protocol, called IPv6, to gain a business edge over their competitors. The upside for customers is better quality of service, and in the long term a more future-proof regional Internet. The Internet Protocol, or IP, is the method by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each device on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet.

Since World IPv6 Launch on June 6, 2012, several major websites such as Google, YouTube, Netflix, and Facebook have started rolling out IPv6.

Today, the message to ISPs is clear: don’t wait for other competitors to switchover to IPv6, and don’t wait until your clients switchover to your competitors.

“The old protocol, IPv4, doesn’t give the Internet any no room to grow, so in the near future, new clients and devices will need to connect using IPv6. Internet penetration is increasing worldwide, and more and more types of devices are connected. Internet providers need to take the IPv6 transition process very seriously in order to meet this growing demand in a satisfactory way,” said Alfredo Verderosa, Manager of Services at the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC), a non-governmental organisation based in Uruguay.

In the last months, IPv6 penetration among Internet users has grown in markets such as Guatemala, where about seven per cent of people using the Internet now have access to the new protocol. Verderosa expects that IPv6 transition will soon have a very positive impact on Guatemala’s Internet landscape.

“Although the numbers aren’t huge, they are still relatively good, since many countries’ adoption rate is actually closer to zero per cent,” he said.

While Guatemala’s IPv6 deployment is not high in absolute terms, it remains among the top in the region, alongside others like Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. For Guillermo Cicileo, Coordinator of Security, Stability and Resilience at LACNIC, the key takeaway is that there is at least one operator providing IPv6 to Internet users in Guatemala, and others operators won’t be too far behind.

“It’s important for ISPs to start the switchover soon, because failure to deploy IPv6 puts them at a serious disadvantage compared to those who have,” Cicileo said.

Verderosa and Cicileo were among several Internet experts gathered in Guatemala City for a three-day regional technology conference called LACNIC On The Move, held at Hilton Garden Inn from March 20 to 22. Since its establishment in 2002, LACNIC has played a leading role in developing a single, open, stable and secure Internet at the service of the development of Latin America and the Caribbean, and has more recently taken an active role in promoting IPv6 deployment across the region, through initiatives such as LACNIC On The Move.

“LACNIC also provides basic and advanced IPv6 training in-person and through its online campus. Our IPv6 Portal IPv6 is a great place for operators seeking free downloadable resources or more information about IPv6,” said Cesar Diaz, Head of Strategic Relations and Telecommunications at LACNIC.

Originally published: Caribbean Journal