KPNQWest Admins Keep Bankrupt Network Running

sebastianw writes "Some of the network administrators from KPNQWest, although they have been (apparently) ordered to shutdown the network, took over control of the KPNQWest NOC. They are trying to keep the network running and keep customers up, regardless of KPNQWest's insolvency. The company warned on Thursday that they would be forced to shut down KPNQwest's entire European data network on Monday unless its customers paid their bills in full immediately." There's a related story on the Register, talking about the possible effect on UK internet access. If anyone needs to hire some network engineers...

Comments

At least it's efficient

[ThesQuid]

It makes you wonder just how many people they really need to run such a network.

It appears to be less than the number they thought.

Re:noc admins

[hollow_man]

Let's not forget that whilst the guys are fighting to save the main NOC and keeping it running, other temporary NOCs have sprung up and the old KQ NOC in The Hague has also been resurrected.

We're all working very hard to make sure that disruption to our customers stays limited to the absolute minimum and all techies in this company have now shown to management that they can make their stand in the darkest hour of this company.

Needless to say I'm proud to work with these guys.

Not Linux, Cisco and Fiberthings and HVAC

[billstewart]

The parts of KPNQwest that everybody's worried about these days aren't running either Linux or Windows - they're routers (probably Cisco) and fiber muxes of various sorts (which do have OSs for their configuration and user interfaces) and the air conditioners for the rooms the equipment runs in. Both non-HVAC categories are pretty reliable as long as there aren't technicians adding or changing things and as long as nobody backhoes any important circuits.

There are other parts of KPNQwest that do run on general-purpose computers, such as the administrative and billing databases, network management systems, etc. Probably some are running Windows or Linux, and others are probably running Solaris or HPUX.