The Internet Report

This week, The Internet Report team and special guest Dave Anderson—a tech industry veteran and co-host of "A Very Melbourne Podcast," which covers the Australian Football League and more—are chatting about how to assure great digital experiences at major sporting events.

Large sporting events are always logistically complex, and today that’s even more the case with digital technology permeating every part of operational and experience delivery. And due to the real-time nature of live sports, any glitch can have a big impact on fan experiences—whether they’re at the stadium or joining in from their living rooms.

For the teams managing this web of digital services that brings sports content to global audiences, it’s vital to guard against potential issues, as well as quickly detect and remediate problems when they do occur. 

Tune in to learn more or use the chapters below to skip to the sections that are most interesting to you.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:50 Digital Experiences in the Sports World
08:57 The In-Stadium Experience
13:18 Hybrid Sports: Catching the Game From Anywhere
18:38 Sports Betting & Digital Experiences
23:06 The Athlete Experience
29:00 Key Takeaways
31:48 Get in Touch

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ABOUT DAVE ANDERSON
A tech industry veteran, Dave Anderson currently serves as the Head of Product Marketing and Strategy at Contentsquare. He also co-hosts "A Very Melbourne Podcast," which covers the Australian Football League and more.

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For more insights, check out The Internet Report blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-digital-experiences-sports?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy25q1_internetreport_q1fy25ep1_podcast

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

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ABOUT THE INTERNET REPORT
This is The Internet Report, a podcast uncovering what’s working and what’s breaking on the Internet—and why. 

Tune in to hear ThousandEyes’ Internet experts dig into some of the most interesting outage events from the past couple weeks, discussing what went awry—was it the Internet, or an application issue?

Plus, learn about the latest trends in ISP outages, cloud network outages, collaboration network outages, and more.

Catch all the episodes on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform:

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-report/id1506984526

- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ADFvqAtgsbYwk4JiZFqHQ?si=00e9c4b53aff4d08&nd=1&dlsi=eab65c9ea39d4773

- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ciscopodcastnetwork/sets/the-internet-report

On July 19, many organizations around the globe—including airlines, banks, and hospitals—experienced outages as Windows machines reportedly got stuck in a boot loop that ultimately resulted in the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). 

These disruptions had a common source: an update from CrowdStrike, a managed detection and response (MDR) service used to protect Windows endpoints from attack. 

Tune in to hear The Internet Report team’s insights on this CrowdStrike update and the ensuing IT outages. We’ll also dive into the separate Azure outage that occurred just hours before, as well as some other recent disruptions.

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:48 CrowdStrike Sensor Update Incident
05:40 Azure Outage
10:47 Workday Outage
12:11 Grammarly Incidents
14:36 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
16:57 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out The Internet Report blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-crowdstrike-update-azure-outage?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q4_internetreport_q4fy24ep6_podcast

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

On May 17, X reached a major milestone when the social media platform completed its full migration from twitter.com to x.com. While the number and frequency of outages did increase after the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk, following the domain migration, there don’t appear to have been any significant disruptions to the X.com platform. 

In this week’s podcast, The Internet Report team discusses what they observed during (and after) the domain migration, and analyzes X’s performance pre- and post-acquisition. 

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:55 Performance in the Twitter Era
05:13 The Sale and Post-sale Periods
12:25 Domain Migration
15:47 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
17:34 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, explore the domain migration in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): https://avlwlcpshpfzyqsusguxxurkhgexgpxx.share.thousandeyes.com

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

Three recent outages at Starlink, Charles Schwab, and the Internet Archive highlight key reminders for NetOps teams around backup options, the role of intelligence, and understanding your end-to-end service delivery chain.

A subset of Starlink users were unable to establish a connection; some users of Schwab.com and its apps may have found themselves unable to transact or trade due to an authentication issue; and the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine were intermittently overwhelmed by unexpected traffic floods.

Tune in to learn more about what happened and why, or use the chapters below to jump to the sections that most interest you:
 
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:54 Starlink Outage
07:35 Charles Schwab Outage
10:20 DDoS Attack Impacts Internet Archive
13:33 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
16:12 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out The Internet Report blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-schwab-starlink-outages?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q4_internetreport_q4fy24ep4_podcast

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

Believe it or not, we’re already about halfway through 2024. Looking at the outage data from this year so far, we see continued evolution, following patterns observed over the past few years. 

Notably, the percentage of cloud service provider (CSP) outages is still increasing—though at a more accelerated rate than seen in recent years.

Tune on to learn more about this trend and other themes we’re noticing in the Internet ecosystem, as well as tips for how IT teams can respond to these evolving challenges.

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:14 Cloud Incident Trends Accelerate
13:56 Blending Real Usage Data With Synthetics
16:35 AI & NetOps
20:52 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out The Internet Report blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-cloud-outages-rise-2024-trends?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q4_internetreport_q4fy24ep3_podcast

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

When it comes to assuring great digital experiences for your users, intermittent issues can be incredibly difficult to discover and diagnose because the service is both working and not working simultaneously—or, it may simply be running slow. Some users may experience issues, while for others, everything will work just fine.

In this week’s episode, The Internet Report team will explore the complexities that intermittent issues can bring by examining two recent incidents at Meta and Salesforce. 

They’ll also cover an automation bug at Google Cloud that caused problems for a range of customers, as well as recent Internet outage trends.

Listen now or use the timestamps below to jump to the sections that most interest you:

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:00 Meta Disruption
05:07 Salesforce DNS Disruption
10:08 Google Cloud Issues Impact Spotify, GitLab, and More
15:09 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
17:14 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out the related Internet Report blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-meta-salesforce-disruptions?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q4_internetreport_q4fy24ep2_podcast

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

Explore what happened during recent outages at google.com, X (formerly Twitter), and CDN service jsDelivr. 

The Internet Report team will also discuss why a detailed understanding of every component in your service delivery chain is vital to maintain the availability and resiliency of your service. If even one component encounters challenges, the entire service can be impacted.

In jsDelivr’s case, for example, the detail at issue was an expired cert, which created problems serving content and impacted many websites that rely on the CDN service.

Listen now to learn more or use the timestamps below to jump to the sections that most interest you:

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:50 google.com Outage
05:23 X Outage
10:33 jsDelivr Outage
15:01 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
17:27 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out the links below:

- The Internet Report: Pulse Update blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-x-jsdelivr-google-outages?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q4_internetreport_q4fy24ep1_podcast

- Explore the X and google.com outages in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): 

X outage: https://aitcvdgvbgkzdxlzjvazipwezvmjeljr.share.thousandeyes.com

google.com outage: https://azraqdwpahxlrnviylmbvpumoonabsnh.share.thousandeyes.com

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

Go under the hood of a ChatGPT outage, H&R Block’s Tax Day disruption, and more incidents from the past few weeks. The Internet Report team will also discuss Microsoft’s update on recent subsea cable cuts and the latest global outage trends.

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:57 ChatGPT Outage
03:35 Revisiting West Coast of Africa Cable Cuts
09:07 H&R Block Outage
11:32 Sky Mobile Outage
12:25 Outage on unpkg CDN
14:06 PlayHQ Outage
16:40 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
19:33 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out the links below:

- The Internet Report: Pulse Update blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-pulse-update-chatgpt-outage-more-news?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q3_internetreportpulse34_podcast

- Explore the ChatGPT outage in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): https://akhdjionjdupmjvkqfyigkaorlxgzgir.share.thousandeyes.com

- Review Microsoft’s post-incident report on the west coast of Africa cable cuts (see the entry labeled March 14, tracking ID: VT60-RPZ): https://azure.status.microsoft/en-gb/status/history/

- Also watch Microsoft’s related Azure Incident Retrospective video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypU_UuwW_w8&list=PLmsFUfdnGr3xomlYbZPAYTtFdkcvbv2ye

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

With tax season coming to a close in the United States, IT teams at tax preparation companies and other organizations in the industry will be taking extra care to make sure that their systems can handle a spike in traffic due to a potential last-minute rush of filings. 

Tune in to hear The Internet Report hosts discuss how IT teams can navigate major spikes in demand and give customers the best possible digital experience, whether it’s Tax Day, Black Friday, or another high-traffic period.

They’ll also unpack recent outages at companies including Apple and WhatsApp, and explore why a sudden reduction in page load times may indicate functional issues rather than true improvements to the customer’s digital experience.

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:11 Navigating U.S. Tax Season and Spikes in Demand
06:37 Pulse Update: Outage Analysis
06:40 Apple Outage: App Store, TV+, and Music
13:35 WhatsApp, Other Meta Services Disrupted
15:04 Square Outage
17:19 Performance as a Cyber Indicator: XZ Utils
20:48 Panera Bread Outage
22:33 Ray AI Disruption
24:13 Outage Trends: By the Numbers
27:05 Get in Touch 

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes

The end-to-end delivery of modern digital services can introduce a complex web of dependencies and failure points, which can stem from direct relationships as well as third-party providers, introducing layers of abstraction for operations teams to keep track of.
 
Managing this complex ecosystem can be challenging. Unexpected issues may arise from seemingly insignificant components, surprising even the largest, most technologically sophisticated organizations.

For example, in recent weeks, problems at third-party providers led to outages at McDonald’s and the Department of Motor Vehicles. Tune in to the episode to hear what happened and explore other incidents from the last couple of weeks.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:09 Payment and Ordering Systems Cut Out at McDonald’s
04:36 Disruptions at the DMV
08:48 Cable Cut in West Africa
10:16 Another Fiber Cut, but With Layered Redundancy
14:12 PlayStation Network, GeForce Now Experience Issues
16:21 Get in Touch 

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For more insights, check out these links:

- The Internet Report: Pulse Update Blog: https://www.thousandeyes.com/blog/internet-report-pulse-update-mcdonalds-dmv-outages?utm_source=transistor&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=na_fy24q3_internetreportpulse32_podcast

- Explore the Africa undersea cable cut in the ThousandEyes platform (no login required): https://alxucgibmtsxarllvvybwfagzkvvlokf.share.thousandeyes.com/

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Want to get in touch?

If you have questions, feedback, or guests you would like to see featured on the show, send us a note at [email protected]. Or follow us on X: @thousandeyes