Microsoft: Stop stealing bandwidth!
Responding to Microsoft's policy to rely on users' bandwidth to upload Windows 10 updates.
GAO blames ISPs for confusing consumers about bandwidth usage
Why put the onus on ISPs when application providers should be providing data on bandwidth usage?
Why Netflix video quality has fluctuated this year
Netflix’s agreement with Comcast contributed to recent performance increases, but Comcast isn’t necessarily responsible for the degradation.
Comcast data usage meter accuracy measurement results
NetForecast just completed a report on the accuracy of Comcast’s Internet data usage meter.
Application Performance = Response Time
From a user’s perspective, application performance is response time. So you need to find out what your users' performance expectations are and identify a response time threshold that satisfies most of them—then you need to measure...
SaaS Performance Bar Rising
For mission-critical SaaS applications to displace their locally accessed cousins, SaaS end-user response times must rival those of the on-premises incumbents. Achieving this goal is challenging, and requires continuous end-user...
Who needs a CDN?
Any enterprise with a web audience in multiple locations can benefit from using a CDN, but if your users are likely to download lots of stuff from your website, play media files, and/or watch or listen to live broadcasts, you are...
Should wireless carriers use home Internet connections for backhaul?
In a thought-provoking article on GigaOM, Prakash Sangam of Qualcomm writes that cellular network capacity could be boosted up to a thousand times if households deploy "small cells" (i.e., femtocell technology) to shunt cellular...
Cloud Federation: It's Happening
Although far from a fait accompli, cloud federation is in the works. Like ants in the Internet ant hill, cloud providers are beginning to join forces to improve their individual prospects for long-term growth and sustainability.Three...
WAN Virtualization as a Managed Service Is an Emerging Trend
At Interop our interest was piqued by a new managed service from Hughes Network Systems that we see as a harbinger of services to come. Using home-grown software installed in a DSL modem, Hughes bonds (i.e. inverse multiplexes) up to...
RIPE Atlas Project Maps the Internet
RIPE NCC (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Center) in the Netherlands is in the early stages of rolling out a distributed Internet measurement system called Atlas. The system collects data that it incorporates into a master...
New Cloud Federation Business Model for CDN Services
We may be witnessing the ants in the Internet ant hill starting to pull together to compete against Goliaths like Akamai and even Amazon Web Services. After a decade of status quo in the CDN space, we're seeing an innovative new...
WAN Optimization as a Service Goes Mainstream
With Akamai's uncharacteristic collaboration with Riverbed to embed Steelhead WAN optimization software into its CDN overlay network, the tide has officially turned--WAN optimization as a service is going main stream. It is...
How Much Traffic Does Streaming Video Streaming Generate?
Do you know how much traffic the act of streaming video to a user's device generates? Chances are you don't, and you don't particularly care. But you should, because lively video surfing by lots of users can affect your work and home...
Apps Eat More Bandwidth than Browsers
As iPads, iPhones, Nooks, Kindles, and other mobile devices multiply like rabbits and join the established population of desktop and laptop computers, the nature of traffic to and from all device types is changing. The key reason for...
Prepare Ye the Way of the Intercloud
The term Intercloud describes the future interconnectedness--or federation--of clouds, similar to the network of networks that is today's Internet. Like the electrical grid, in which a utility is shared based on supply and demand,...
Energy Star Equivalent Needed for Application Bandwidth Consumption
The FCC (or someone) should implement an Energy Star equivalent for bandwidth consumption by Internet applications such as Google and Facebook to educate consumers about demand placed on their broadband connections by the...
Do Broadband Consumers Get the Bandwidth They Pay For?
NetForecast examined the FCC's Internet connection performance data to determine if consumers are receiving the bandwidth they pay for. We found that the higher the bandwidth purchased, the better the chance that the bandwidth...
Laws of Internet Resource Supply and Demand
Like most systems, the Internet is subject to the laws of resource supply and demand. Demand for Internet resources that affect speed is most heavily influenced and driven by the way websites are designed and operated. The primary...
No Matter What the FCC Says, Bandwidth Is Not Speed
In its recently published Measuring Broadband America report, the FCC erroneously uses the terms 'bandwidth' and 'speed' interchangeably. The FCC should know better. ISPs claim to deliver high speeds if you buy their higher bandwidth...
