Data centre neutrality requires connection neutrality

Impetus

There is a huge growth in offshore server farms, outside the grasp of NSA and GCHQ, so companies than use cloud services and protect themselves and their customers from data theft by these organisations.

There is a new fibre optic cable planned between Cork and France, bypassing the latency and GCHQ-ity of routing traffic between Ireland and mainland Europe via London or other GB points.* The cable will be terminating at CIX** – the same place as the low latency fibre optic connection to New York. Other links to Asia are planned. This map shows the EIG and others, which could easily be connected to a point in the South of Ireland to provide direct access to the Mediterranean, Africa, India etc. Monaco is connected to EIG, presumably to give it internet independence from its neighbouring continental “frenemies”.

Projects like this should be planned and combined with high voltage (HVDC) power inter-connectors with the fibre manufactured into the HVDC cable. There is nothing more effective than a 15’000 volt shock to keep a diver employed by a snoop agency from trying to attach a tap to an undersea cable. It also helps reduce the cost of the combined projects of providing power and telecommunications between two countries. Only one cable laying ship is required. There is a new cable being laid between Malta and Sicily which will combine power and fibre optics for data.

Ireland has numerous data centres built for Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook etc either completed, under construction or in the pipeline. If the country is to get serious about providing neutral bandwidth, compliant with the current and future expected EU data privacy laws, it needs to improve the number of connections that allow Irish data centres serve the rest of the world – without British or US interference.

*http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/cork-data-centre-eyes-global-connections-332880.html

** www.cix.ie

syklops

And then a Chinese, American, British, French or Russian sub taps the under sea cables.

Impetus

syklops wrote: »

And then a Chinese, American, British, French or Russian sub taps the under sea cables.

Read the posting - the fibre cables should be built into HVDC power links - share the cost of laying the connection and keep the fibre secure.

Also France - while it does snoop - is not a member of the five eyes and is not against the EU. The Anglo-Saxon countries have a deep hatred of the EU - it is in their DNA. They also do not want an alternative dominant force on the planet. Connecting via France to the rest of the EU is a lower latency, more secure option for companies that want to be seen to comply with EU data privacy laws. This includes many US and other foreign companies who have or are considering having their data centre located in Ireland. It is a sick joke to put a data centre in Ireland and then route its traffic via GB - if the data centre is designed to make a company compliant with EU data privacy laws. The NSA use GCHQ and vice versa to do their dirty work.

Similar issues apply to the use of debit cards, credit cards and the move from cash payments. GB and the US control Visa and MasterCard systems. This includes the Visa debit card which is Ireland's dominant debit card. Europe needs its own debit card infrastructure as an alternative to Visa/MC if it ever expects to reduce reliance on cash.

syklops

"Should". SO this sint news. Its your own peronal fantasy. Why dont you get a blog?

Impetus

syklops wrote: »

"Should". SO this sint news. Its your own peronal fantasy. Why dont you get a blog?

Been there, done that over the last few decades. Many of my "fantasies" (to use your appellation) have been realized. Though not all.

As a frequent traveller, the idea that Aer Lingus is to be controlled by an entity managed from a terrorism generating state, is not one of those fantasies. Rather it is an issue of national security, and a reflection on the incompetence of those politicians who appear to be allowing the share sale to go through. But I digress......

FSL

The degree of snooping by any security force on the planet is a factor to their technical competence not their love of privacy.

Impetus

FSL wrote: »

The degree of snooping by any security force on the planet is a factor to their technical competence not their love of privacy.

Compare Russia with Switzerland. The Swiss have as much competence and ability to monitor phone and data traffic in their country, which is at the crossroads of Europe. But Switzerland is a confederation of Republics with direct democracy, with strict data protection laws etc.

Russia on the other hand is a corrupt, imperialist state, run by a single individual who comes from a KGB background. Russians are far more worried about what they say on the phone than the Swiss. I know somebody who is in business in the EU and has business relations with companies with Russians, and the Russians will spend five hours flying to the EU to talk face to face rather than over the phone. Trade secrets, business plans, nothing is safe.

Data security and privacy goes to the root of the success of a society in commercial, political, and social levels.