TeleGeography Explains the Internet

605: A Guide to Calculating the World's Next Interconnectivity Hub (According to You)

Where are we building data centers? Why? What markets are primed for interconnectivity glory? Which ones are getting left in the dust?

We've heard these questions again and again. So we did what any reasonable telecom data provider would do: we developed an interactive tool to rank the world's best-connected and fastest-growing cities, scored on a scale of 0-100 across nine key categories.

This week's guest on TeleGeography Explains the Internet is our resident data center expert Jon Hjembo. He walks us through how (and why!) we developed the Market Connectivity Score and reveals what initial rankings tell us about the interconnectivity landscape and metro areas to watch like Kuala Lumpur.

From This Episode:

• Episode 603 | What Network Managers Should Know About AI and Machine Learning
• Episode 308 | Data Centers and Digital Transformation
• TeleGeography Literally Explains Data Centers
• Jon Hjembo at PTC 2024
• About the Data Center Research Service
• Quarterly Market Connectivity Scores

604: Who Orchestrates the Orchestrators?

We're back on the AI beat, specifically looking at how it can support corporate network automation.

Per usual, we had a little help. Our guest today is Jamie Pugh, CTO at Globalgig.

Jamie joined the show not only to ponder all things automation but also to discuss enterprise network orchestration in the era of an increasingly complex WAN.

603: What Network Managers Should Know About AI and Machine Learning

It's 2024. We obviously had to do an AI episode of the pod.

And for that, we welcome our guest Michael Wynston, Director of Network & Security Architecture at Fiserv. 

Michael is the first esteemed member of TeleGeography Explains the Internet's four-timers club. Indeed, as I'm sure you've guessed, he's back on the show for the fourth time. And this time around he's here to help us better understand how AI is developing as a network management tool.

 

602: What to Know About Direct-to-Device Satellite Communications

For our next episode of TeleGeography Explains the Internet, we look to the sky.

Our guest is Sal Salamone, Managing Editor of Network Computing magazine. Sal joins to discuss the emerging market for direct-to-device satellite communications. 

601: The History of U.S. Telecom Policy (in Under 60 Minutes)

TeleGeography Explains the Internet is back from summer break.

We return a little older, a little wiser, and you can bet that we've done the summer reading. To that end, we're starting this season with a classic TeleGeography Explains deep dive.

The topic? U.S. telecom law! 

Greg is joined by Jeff Long, an attorney in private practice with broad experience in both the data center and telecom industry. 

TeleGeography Literally Explains the WAN

Over the past five weeks, we've endeavored to explain precisely how data moves around the world, covering the basics of internet, transport networks, data centers, and the cloud along the way.

Today we answer our final, lingering question: What is a WAN?

First, let's get definitions out of the way. WAN stands for wide area network, which came out of the term LAN, or local area network.

Today's episode will help you brush up on the evolution of the WAN. We'll also hear from Brianna Boudreau, TeleGeography's current SD-WAN guru.

From This Episode:

• What is the Internet?
• What is a Transport Network?
• What Are Data Centers?
• What is the Cloud?
• Episode 508 | How Geography Influences Network Security
• Episode 501 | Are These WAN Sourcing Trends Real or Just Hype?
• Episode 425 | Surveying the WANscape
• Episode 421 | What Makes a WAN Truly Secure?
• Download the WAN Manager Survey Executive Summary
• What SD-WAN Is and How It’s Deployed

TeleGeography Literally Explains the Cloud

You may have heard a popular saying: There is no cloud, only other people’s computers. 

To explain how it works, Senior Research Manager Patrick Christian joins us to talk cloud. We explain what it means to get something "as-a-service," hyperscalers, CDNs, and how companies get to the cloud.

From This Episode:

• What is the Internet?
• What is a Transport Network?
• What Are Data Centers?
• Explore our Cloud Infrastructure Map
• Episode 510 | Head in the Cloud, Toes at the Edge
• Episode 505 | It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Super Cloud
• Episode 410 | A Telecom Year in Review, Part 1
• Episode 304 | Understanding the Multicloud-Verse of Madness

TeleGeography Literally Explains Data Centers

We're back at it with episode three of our five-part podcast special that explains the nuts and bolts of the internet. We haven’t yet covered exactly how and where those networks meet and exchange traffic with each other and access their destinations. 

So today, it's data center time.

Senior Research Manager Jon Hjembo was on hand to help us work through data center types, their defining features, and what happens inside these facilities. We talk about who owns these structures and how their geography informs the way the internet works.

From This Episode:

• What is the Internet?
• What is a Transport Network?
• Episode 508 | How Geography Influences Network Security
• Episode 410 | A Telecom Year in Review, Part 1
• Episode 402 | Data Centers and the Opportunity at the Edge
• Episode 308 | Data Centers and Digital Transformation
• Where in the World Is the Largest Data Center Hub?
• Does 70% of the World’s Internet Traffic Flow Through Virginia?

TeleGeography Literally Explains Transport Networks

Welcome back to our five-part podcast special that literally explains how the internet you know and love works.

Last week we covered the most basic question: what is the internet?

Today, we tunnel deeper, exploring the physical transport networks behind this seemingly invisible, omnipresent information superhighway. Plus we get a little help from TeleGeography's own Paul Brodsky, Peter Wood, and Lane Burdette for this one

From This Episode:

• What is the Internet?
• Explore our Submarine Cable Map
• Episode 503 | The Total Transformation of Latin American Telecom
• Episode 424 | What Happens to Cables When The Earth Moves Under Our Feet?
• Episode 418 | Behind the Seas: Making Our Famous Submarine Cable Map
• Episode 416 | The Death of Voice Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
• Episode 404 | What Role Do Satellites Play in Global Communication?

TeleGeography Literally Explains the Internet

What is the internet? Simply put, the internet is a network of computers.

Computers can only understand two things: on and off. Everything that we do on the internet is in binary—a series of 1s and 0s representing on and off—which gives instructions to your computer to do all the amazing things it does.

This means that the very bottom of the internet is a system for sending those 1s and 0s over wires (or spectrum in some cases). Whatever you do on the internet—email, videos, chats—the information is translated into that binary by your devices and then transmitted via packets.

We cover this process and lots more in the first episode of our five-part special to, well, literally explain the internet.