Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 16 March 2020
U.S. internet well-equipped to handle work from home surge

By FRANK BAJAK since the first week of Feb-
AP Technology Writer ruary in greater Seattle, the
BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. in- U.S. metropolitan region
ternet won't get overload- hardest-hit by COVID-19,
ed by spikes in traffic from according to Cloudflare.
the millions of Americans The sudden, unanticipated
now working from home surge in millions of remote
to discourage the spread workers has forced compa-
of the new coronavirus, ex- nies to scramble to boost
perts say. But connections their capacity for secure
could stumble for many if connections through virtual
too many family members private networks, said Pat-
try to videoconference at rick Sullivan, chief technical
the same time. officer for security at Aka-
Some may have to settle mai, a major IT provider for
for audio, which is much business and government.
less demanding of band- The surge is creating some
width. temporary bottlenecks. But
Separately, Sen. Mark War- because so much of com-
ner of Virginia on Saturday puting has moved to cloud
applauded announce- services, the shift doesn't
ments by several major U.S. pose much of an on-site
internet providers for taking burden for companies, said
temporary measures — in- Sullivan, with bottlenecks
cluding the suspension of This June 19, 2017 file photo shows a person working on a laptop in North Andover, Mass. typically cleared in minutes
data caps, free public Wi- Associated Press or hours.
Fi and free broadband for But some conference call-
households with children greedy Netflix, YouTube because the so-called last Prince said in an interview ing and chat services have
who lack it — designed to and other streaming ser- mile is for most Americans Friday that Cloudflare saw been overwhelmed.
better accommodate re- vices. provisioned for cable — no evidence, however, A call-in press conference
mote access for students, "The core of the network download capacity is ro- that the Italian internet has arranged by Oregon Gov.
workers and public health is massively over-provi- bust but upload limited. gotten any slower. World Kate Brown's office on Fri-
officials. He and 17 other sioned," said Paul Vixie, Fiber optic connections Cup soccer matches have day crashed twice be-
colleagues, Democrats CEO of Farsight Security don't have the same issues posed a greater burden. cause of the high volume
and independents, had and an internet pioneer and will do fine. Peak internet usage times of callers to the AT&T tele-
called for such measures who helped design its do- Italy's internet saw a 30% in nations where work has conferencing center.
in a letter Thursday to CEOs main naming system. spike in peak-hour traffic shifted from the office to Brown's office said in a news
of AT&T, Charter, Comcast, But if parents are video- early this past week after home due to COVID-19 release that the cause was
Cox, Verizon, CenturyLink, conferencing for work at the government sent ev- have also shifted — from the large number of peo-
Sprint and T-Mobile. the same time college eryone home into isola- about dinner time to about ple using the tele-meeting
The core of the U.S. network and high school students tion, said Matthew Prince, 11 a.m. Prince says it hap- call center and that "simi-
is more than capable of are trying to beam into CEO of Cloudflare, which pened in Italy and South lar issues and demand are
handling the virus-related school, they could experi- shapes and secures in- Korea and expects the being reported across the
surge in demand because ence congestion. Figure a ternet traffic for websites, same in the U.S. country."
it has evolved to be able to packet-dropping threshold more than 10% of which sit Traffic has spiked 10% to The conference call
easily handle bandwidth- of five or more users. That's behind its network. 20% during peak hours worked the third time.q
Apple temporarily shuts

stores worldwide to fight virus

Tim Cook tweeted Satur- mize risk of the virus's trans- pany temporarily shut its 42
day. "Apple will be tempo- mission is to reduce den- stores in mainland China at
rarily closing all stores out- sity and maximize social the height of the country's
side of Greater China until distance," he said. That's outbreak. It said last month
March 27 and committing why the company is taking it wouldn't meet its second-
$15M to help with world- new steps to protect work- quarter financial guidance
wide recovery." ers and customers as the because of reduced de-
In a lengthier online state- infection rate rises in other mand and production of
ment, Cook said that Ap- places. iPhones in China.
ple's stores in China have all Apple's online stores remain The announcement came
now reopened and what open. Workers will continue hours after Apple said its
A woman wearing mask walks past the Apple store in an empty
mall district in Beijing, China on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. the company has learned to be paid and office staff annual Worldwide Devel-
Associated Press there has helped it devel- will work remotely if possi- opers Conference would
op "best practices that are ble, Cook said in the state- take place entirely online
LONDON (AP) — Tech giant the global viral pandemic. assisting enormously in our ment issued Friday. this year. Thousands of en-
Apple is closing its stores "In our workplaces and global response." The iPhone maker has more gineers and customers at-
outside of China for two communities, we must do One of the lessons Apple than 500 retail stores world- tend the event in San Jose,
weeks and will only sell on- all we can to prevent the learned in China is that "the wide, with about half in the California, which is in its 31st
line as part of efforts to fight spread of COVID-19," CEO most effective way to mini- United States. The com- year.q