SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ThousandEyes, the Internet and Cloud Intelligence company, today announced the findings of its inaugural 2020 Internet Performance Report, a first-of-its-kind study of the availability and performance of Internet-related networks, including those of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), public cloud, Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Domain Name System (DNS) providers. Measuring performance over time, the report examines the impacts of changing Internet usage due to COVID-19 and how those impacts varied across different regions and providers.
“The Internet is inherently unpredictable and outages are inevitable even under normal conditions. However, with the overnight transition to a remote workforce, remote schooling, and remote entertainment that many countries experienced in March, we saw outages spike to unprecedented levels -- especially among Internet Service Providers who seem to have been more vulnerable to disruptions than cloud providers,” said Angelique Medina, research author and director of product marketing at ThousandEyes. “With the Internet Performance Report, businesses can benchmark Internet performance pre and post COVID-19 and plan for a more resilient IT environment as they continue to build out infrastructures that can manage the external dependencies on cloud and Internet networks that employee and consumer experiences now rely on.”
Rapid adoption of cloud services, widespread use of SaaS applications, and reliance on the Internet has created business continuity risks for enterprises. ThousandEyes is an enterprise software platform that enables organizations to see the Internet like it’s their own network. Based on an unmatched number of vantage points around the globe that perform billions of measurements each day to detect when traffic flows are disrupted and measure performance, ThousandEyes leverages this unique Internet intelligence to monitor and detect how Internet, cloud, and other third-party dependencies impact end-user digital experiences. Based on measurements collected between January and July 2020, the Internet Performance Report uncovers important insights into the resilience and behavior of the global Internet, helping organizations apply a data-driven lens to their IT and business planning.
Key findings from the 2020 Internet Performance Report: COVID-19 Impact Edition, include:
- Global Internet disruptions saw an unprecedented rise, increasing 63% in March over January, and remained elevated through the first half of 2020 compared to pre-pandemic levels. In June, 44% more disruptions were recorded compared to January.
- ISPs in North America and APAC experienced the largest spikes in March at 65% (North America) and 99% (APAC) respectively versus January, and have since returned to levels typical of those regions. In EMEA, however, outages continue to increase month over month with 45% more disruptions in June versus January.
- ISPs were hit the hardest, while cloud provider networks demonstrated greater overall stability. Between January and July, cloud providers experienced ~400 outages globally versus more than ~4500 in ISP networks. Relative to total outages, more than 80% occurred within ISP networks and less than 10% within cloud provider networks.
- Though the total number of outages increased across all regions, impact on Internet users varied. Following pre-pandemic patterns, a larger proportion of disruptions in EMEA tend to occur during peak business hours as compared to North America, where a majority of large outages typically take place outside of traditional business hours and therefore may not have a meaningful impact on Internet users.
- Overall, the Internet held up. Despite unprecedented conditions and an increase in network disruptions, Internet-related infrastructures have held up well, suggesting overall healthy capacity, scalability, and operator agility needed to adjust to unforeseen demands. Negative performance indicators, such as traffic delay, loss, and jitter generally remained within tolerable ranges, showing no evidence of systemic network duress.
- Increased network disruptions due to operator adjustments. Many of the network disruptions observed post-February appeared to be related to network operators making more changes to their networks to compensate for changing traffic conditions.
“Initially, we saw both businesses and service providers scramble to adjust, overnight, to work-from-home environments. However now, we see a definite shift towards accommodating a more permanent scenario of serving a remote workforce,” said Paul Bevan, research director, IT Infrastructure, Bloor Research. “This is creating a realignment of network infrastructure that will look very different from pre-March network platforms. The findings from ThousandEyes’ research will be critical in helping organizations understand the inter-dependencies that are at play between internal and external networks, and how to strengthen IT infrastructures now that the Internet has become a core component to manage.”
For a complete list of findings and to learn more about the 2020 Internet Performance Report: COVID-19 Impact Edition, please download the report here.
Learn more:
- Download the 2020 ThousandEyes Internet Performance Report: COVID-19 Impact Edition
- View the infographic: Five Data-driven Insights About Internet Performance and Resilience
- Register to attend the webinar: How the Internet Responded to a Pandemic -- and What it Means for Your Business, taking place August 13, 2020 at 10:00 AM PDT
- Read the blog: A Tale of Two Internets: Internet Performance Pre and Post COVID-19
- Find current job openings at ThousandEyes
- Read the latest ThousandEyes announcements and news coverage
About ThousandEyes
ThousandEyes, the Internet and Cloud Intelligence company, delivers the only collectively powered view of the Internet enabling enterprises and service providers to work together to improve the quality of every digital experience. The ThousandEyes platform leverages data collected from an unmatched fleet of vantage points throughout the global Internet, from within data centers and VPCs and on end user devices to expose key dependencies that impact digital service delivery, empowering businesses to see, understand and improve how their customers and employees experience any digital website, application or service. ThousandEyes is central to the global operations of the world's largest and fastest growing brands, including 150+ of the Global 2000, 80+ of the Fortune 500, 6 of the 7 top US banks, and 20 of the 25 top SaaS companies. For more information, visit www.ThousandEyes.com or follow us on Twitter at @ThousandEyes.