Internet traffic hit record highs on March 10

On Tuesday, March 10, data centers around the world recorded record high volumes of Internet traffic. Analysts attribute this increase in Internet user activity to the coronavirus epidemic, which has been gaining momentum over the past couple of months, and the release of a new game from the Call of Duty series.

The growth in network traffic highlights the importance of network infrastructure in adapting society and business to the situation caused by the spread of the coronavirus. As of March 11, COVID-19 infection has caused more than 4300 deaths worldwide.

A key strategy to slow the spread of the virus is to prevent mass gatherings. Many companies operating in the IT industry are transferring employees to remote work. So, experts from Google, Twitter, Amazon and Microsoft are already working from home. It is expected that the trend towards transferring employees to remote work will only gain momentum until the epidemic subsides. Major world universities, following the example of corporations, are moving to online courses in order to avoid mass gatherings of students.

Network traffic specialist Kinetik says business-hour videoconferencing has increased by 200 percent in Asia and North America. Busy business traffic clashed with the release of shooter Call of Duty: Warzone on Tuesday. The size of the data downloaded by the game, depending on the platform, varies from 18 to 23 GB. The influx of people wanting to install a new game caused an overload of the main Internet backbones.

One of the world's busiest network nodes, Frankfurt's DE-CIX, recorded its highest ever traffic level of over 9,1 Tbps on the evening of March 10, up 800 Gbps from two weeks ago. The representative of the network node said that according to preliminary calculations, the volume of transmitted data should have reached 9 Tbps only at the end of this year. The CTO of DE-CIX stated that ensuring the stability and security of the Internet is one of the company's top priorities. Other data centers also reported record levels of traffic.

It is likely that the Internet will be used even more intensively in the coming days, as more and more companies transfer employees to remote work. School closures in China have caused a huge surge in downloads of online learning apps such as Alibaba DingTalk and Tencent Meeting.

“As the world is facing a difficult situation, the digital economy is now supporting the global economy. commented Mark Ganzi, CEO of Digital Bridge. “Communication through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco and Slack applications is an example of how Internet technologies help the world's leading companies to conduct business.”

Source: 3dnews.ru