Author: Gavin Rea

Chief Technical Officer

Gulf Bridge International (GBI)

The significance of connectivity providers to normal life has never been as evident as it is today. Through the spread of COVID-19, we have all witnessed first-hand our society’s reliance on internet connectivity and associated applications to maintain a level of normality in our daily lives our connection to the internet has proven to be the foundation for remote learning, remote working, social contact as well as a source for our entertainment. The infrastructure behind our internet connection is hidden under the sea and the ground but the operation of this infrastructure to a large extent has been positioned as the springboard to overcoming this pandemic. Connectivity providers like Gulf Bridge International provide an essential service that serves as the foundation to which other essential front line workers rely and build upon.

We have seen surging network demand across the world as content consumption spikes with people being confined to their homes and remote working and learning becoming the new norm. With visiting family and friends being limited, the use of Zoom, Facetime, TEAMs, Google Hangouts, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc has become essential to maintaining social contact. The pandemic is impacting consumer behaviour worldwide, with online traffic across 20 different industries increasing by approximately 25% in the week ending April 19 according to Statista, compared to the reference period in January and February 2020. According to The New York Times, streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube saw growth of roughly 16% and 15% respectively between January and the end of March 2020, while Facebook saw a surge of 27%. On top of this, the video conferencing app Zoom saw growth from around 1.9 million daily app sessions in January to around 6.5 million in March. As traffic continues to surge, as does the responsibility of connectivity providers to keep the world connected in the face of the new, varied and continuously changing challenges posed by the current situation.

GBI Smart Network

The GBI Smart Network serves as a solid backbone network to cope with traffic spikes seen both regionally and globally. Being a regional company, GBI’s greatest asset is our carrier neutral, fiberoptic network that includes a mix of submarine cable systems and terrestrial infrastructure, that provides us our global reach. This infrastructure connects financial and communications hubs across the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. The GBI Smart Network is built upon investments in 9 major subsea cable systems with 9 points of presence (PoPs), 17 cable landings between London and Singapore, all of which are optimized via two diverse routes.

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Adaptability Through Collaboration

The GBI Smart Network has been purpose built for performance and reliability which is supported by our Smart Network Analytics, allowing us to proactively troubleshoot networking issues before they impact performance. A challenge faced by all connectivity providers is addressing the increase in demand previously referenced. Without having a prior contingency plan for this unexpected increase, connectivity providers would not have been able to meet the changing demands. All services at GBI are functioning as normal and increasing demands have been and will continue to be met with the same high level performance. GBI is able to scale capacity as needed by customers through seamless configuration and collaboration with partners.

Even with Smart Network Analytics, repairs of cables cuts can provide a challenge during the current situation what was once a normal process changed on a daily basis making repairs a greater challenge. GBI through the support and collaboration with our dedicated suppliers, partners and both local and international governments, has been able to overcome these challenges. In particular, what this current situation has identified is that the systems and processes adopted by certain organisations do not easily transfer to remote working due to over reliance on being office and paper based. GBI along with its suppliers and partners in the Global Submarine Cable Industry will need to use the lessons learnt and encourage adoption of the new ways of working to ensure that if a similar situation arose we are even better prepared to deal with the challenges that arise.

COVID-19 has unfortunately impacted infrastructure maintenance and related permissions needed but ultimately it is collaboration that has allowed us to troubleshoot and overhaul where necessary in an efficient manner.

Business Continuity

By transforming networking with the adaptability and scalability needed for the connectivity demands experienced today, business continuity is made possible no matter what the situation may be. Networking infrastructure is at the heart of digital transformation and seamless connectivity, and it has never been so important for businesses, employees, and end users around the world.

COVID-19 has put business continuity planning to the test globally and GBI isn’t exempt from this. GBI has been able to adapt by limiting the employee presence in our offices to the essential employees. These essential employees are mainly comprised of our Network Operations Centre (NOC) team who have been working tirelessly to ensure connectivity is interrupted during this critical time.   For most companies and organizations, networking has been at the heart of business continuity planning. As connectivity has become prioritized during this time so has the role that GBI plays as a connectivity provider.

Moreover, COVID-19 has set new policies for the workplace and work-related processes. GBI put in place new “pandemic-proof” policies that have built efficiency into troubleshooting both large scale and minor obstacles. These same policies will strengthen our business continuity plan and aim to streamline these processes post-COVID-19.

Adaptability

COVID-19 has greatly affected the way we live our everyday lives and to a large extent took the world by surprise. One of the main takeaways from COVID-19 has been adaptability both inside and outside the workplace. Many of the solutions around travel restrictions and social distancing measures are rooted in internet connectivity. In the coming months, we as an industry will have a better understanding of traffic volumes and behavior, as well as how this behavior will change once we have returned to our respective offices. In all cases, it is paramount that GBI is prepared for these changes as we have been at the start of this pandemic. GBI should and will be able to scale up and down connectivity as required by customers, through the support and collaboration of our partners. Continuity planning and investments made in digital transformation technology have allowed organizations to be adaptable and proved highly beneficial in unexpected events such as COVID-19.

Looking Towards the Future

This pandemic has given way for business leaders to strengthen their digital infrastructure, scalability, and adaptability to build resilience within their everyday work policies. Connectivity providers and cloud providers play an integral role in this resilience and the new normal that is come.

In conclusion, this pandemic has greatly demonstrated the importance of the role that connectivity providers play in our respective societies. We have seen a dip in economies globally but there is no doubt that without internet connectivity, we would be witnessing larger crashes in our economies and great limitations to business continuity. Moreover, operating within this industry, cloud providers and connectivity providers alike have considerable responsibility in keeping the wheels turning, both during this pandemic and in the foreseeable future. Moving forward we need to review what we experienced, learn the lessons and implement appropriate improvements to ensure we are better prepared next time. GBI is proud to take on this responsibility and will continue to adapt and create processes to streamline the services we offer to our customers in collaboration with our partners.

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