Image: © Dan74/Stock.adobe.com
ThousandEyes has released its global internet outage map to the public to highlight the strains placed on networks during the coronavirus outbreak.
The economic impact of the outbreak of the coronavirus has reached nearly every part of the globe, with millions told to stay at home. This unprecedented move is putting enormous strain on global internet networks, and now network monitoring company ThousandEyes has released a real-time internet outage map to highlight the strain being placed on these networks across the world.
The real-time map is a basic visualisation of global internet health, using billions of measurements to detect when traffic flows are disrupted within internet service providers (ISP), public cloud networks and other service providers.
The company said the number of ISP outages has entered a “concerning upward trajectory” since the beginning of March, coinciding with the global spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
However, public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have seen almost no coronavirus-related impacts this month, except for a slight increase in US-based outages.
Click on the image to access the live version of the map. Image: ThousandEyes
Dismissing rumours
“Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been inundated with requests from businesses, industry analysts and other various parties wanting to get a better understanding of global internet health during these trying times,” said Mohit Lad, co-founder and CEO of ThousandEyes.
“We’re thrilled to release the Global Internet Outages Map to give businesses and consumers alike a reliable source based on actual internet telemetry instead of public rumour to help them understand what’s happening on the internet at any point in time.”
It comes as the UN body responsible for networks, the International Telecommunications Union, announced a platform to aid governments, ISPs and mobile network providers at this time.
According to ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao, it will help these groups share and pool experiences and initiatives, as well as policy and regulatory measures to help ensure communities remain connected both during and after the ongoing pandemic.
