The Big Internet Brown Out of 2012? | ExtraHop

Forget the 2012 Mayan calendar apocalypse, IT has something more real to worry about that year. My co-worker Dave brought this to my attention: a Times Online article cites a Nemertes Research report that warns about the web reaching a critical point in terms of bandwidth. The hypothesis is that high-bandwidth content sites like Youtube and general internet growth and user demand will outstrip available bandwidth, "rendering the internet an 'unreliable toy'." What was interesting to me was that the article used a medical example, just like my blog post from the other day, citing that the internet might become "useless" for delivering "medical records between hospitals in real time".

A Google search turned up the actual report, which is very well reasoned, examining influences from both the supply and demand side and included a section on IPV4 vs IPV6. Well worth reading.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.extrahop.com/post/blog/industry-trends/the-big-internet-brown-out-of-2012/