Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

If you’re a remote worker struggling with video calls, or a gamer noticing lag, a quick Internet ping test using an online ping tester can give you a simple yes/no answer: Is my connection alive, and how fast does it respond?. But if you’re a network admin or IT professional, that’s just scratching the surface. Business networks are more complex beasts.

Zoom calls have become a staple of modern life, connecting us with friends, family, and colleagues from all over the world. But have you ever experienced the frustration of a laggy, glitchy Zoom call that leaves you feeling like you're in a bad sci-fi movie? Laggy video, packet loss, and jitter make it difficult to have a clear and coherent conversation over Zoom - which is why it’s important to identify these Zoom issues before your next call.

Welcome, network admins and IT pros, to a world where network bottlenecks become nothing more than a distant memory. In an era where the need for speed is paramount, identifying and eliminating network bottlenecks is the key to achieving warp-speed connectivity. Your network is like a bustling metropolis, with data zipping through its veins like cars on a busy highway. But suddenly, the flow slows down to a snail's pace, causing frustration and hindering productivity.

Networks have evolved far beyond simple data conduits.They're now the backbone of decentralized digital enterprises, serving as critical channels for information exchange. Modern networks connect dispersed locations and devices, driving performance, security, and cost efficiency. However, decentralization also scatters assets, creates blind spots and increases operational complexity.

There are three common ways to connect your branch locations to the cloud. We break down the benefits and limitations of each. Many enterprises are executing a strategy of cloud services first, followed by application modernization – including SD-WAN. Moving toward a cloud-native architecture using containerization, microservices, or serverless architectures like SD-WAN can lower costs over time, increase scalability, reduce development cycles, and speed up time to market.

For years, you had an unspoken agreement. Your networks were built to be resilient, and your applications were, for the most part, forgiving. You sent emails, transferred files, and backed up data. If a few packets went missing along the way, the protocols would quietly clean up the mess. A little bit of packet loss was just background noise, an expected imperfection in a system that was, by and large, incredibly robust. You could tolerate it.

Whether it’s streaming video, powering remote work, or supporting smart technologies, the ability to connect local users to the global internet is essential. But behind the scenes, a key infrastructure layer ensures that this digital experience runs smoothly: the middle mile. Middle mile networks serve as the critical bridge between the internet’s backbone and the local networks that deliver service to homes, businesses, and institutions.

Loaf and behold, this retrospective covers nearly 20 years of the Baker’s Dozen style annual ranking of the biggest ASes of the internet. In it we discuss the DFZ, de-peerings, and partitions. It was the yeast we could do.