COVID-19 vs. our Networks

Sat Mar 14 22:12:23 UTC 2020

I suggest the NANOG community needs to actively recognize this risks
becoming the largest north american wide test of mass work from home that
has happened since I got involved in the public internet back in 1986.

It may also drive some permanent changes in traffic patterns as high volume
remote work becomes the new normal.

There is good news here. The infrastructure has never been better
positioned to support this kind of mass event. We can shop from home, work
from home, get groceries from home, order drugs, get entertainment, all via
IP. The ISP community needs to be ready to respond to the magnitude of what
is happening.

In Toronto, municipal services are shut down, schools are closed,
university classes are cancelled, transit is reduced, Person is a ghost
town, mass gatherings are cancelled, multiple senior politicians are
self-isolating. Discussions are happening about closing malls. All this
happened in the last week. The downtown core was a ghost town on Friday. We
have a fraction of the cases in Canada as the US does.

I personally know numerous very large companies that have formally
activated their business continuity plans and have or are about to send
tens of thousands to work from home.

Numerous ISPs have waived overage fees
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-rogers-videotron-cut-internet-data-caps-to-help-workers-impacted-by/>
in consideration of the situation here.

I start formal work from home as of Monday *with no defined timeline for
recall as yet*. My current department went from thinking about it, to
testing BCP, to sending people home, inside of 1 week.

This is real. It is rapidly evolving. Be prepared and realize your
networks, if they were not before, are now safety critical.

Regards,

Eric Carroll
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