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Google Now Second-Largest ISP
bednarz writes "Google is now the second-largest carrier of Internet traffic, accounting for 6.4% of all web traffic, according to data released this week by Arbor Networks. But should IT execs care? Yes, says Craig Labovitz, Arbor's chief scientist, who argues that IT managers need to understand how macro Internet traffic trends will affect the design and management of their own network backbones. 'This will affect how enterprises plan their services... whether they host their own services or whether they use cloud vendors,' Labovitz says. 'The enterprise needs to shift its thinking in terms of [service level agreements] and the way it measures, monitors and secures its networks. That all used to be focused on connectivity, but now it needs to be focused on content.'"
blah blah blah GOOGLE blah blah blah IT MANAGERS blah blah blah NETWORK BACKBONE blah blah blah THE CLOUD blah blah blah THE ENTERPRISE blah blah blah.
And yet so many people think that Google *is* the internet these days.
And I thought Google TiSP was just a joke...
Only one tier 1 provider – a wholesaler to other ISPs – carries more Internet traffic on its backbone network than Google does (Arbor declined to identify the provider)
Arbor may decline to identify the largest provider but this is Slashdot, damn it. You know you will find the answer here.
And, the answer is... Level 3 Communications
Don't they serve much more data then google?
No, but I'd guess they serve pretty good sushi.
TFA is a puff piece interview of the guy who put out the press release.
Amazingly shoddy journalism.
Here's what he said in the comments
Comment Post by: Craig Labovitz -- October 26th, 2010 @ 7:47 am EST Reply
Given commercial sensitivities, we are not disclosing any rankings of other providers. Though most backbone engineers would probably have the right guess.
It's not a secret that Level 3 is #1 and will probably stay that way since they can easily increase their bandwidth.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
'This will affect how enterprises plan their services... whether they host their own services or whether they use cloud vendors,' Labovitz says. 'The enterprise needs to shift its thinking in terms of [service level agreements] and the way it measures, monitors and secures its networks. That all used to be focused on connectivity, but now it needs to be focused on content.'"
I read this through 3 times and I'm still pretty sure it doesn't mean anything at all
And here's why:
Google is already in our internet search lives, our phones, and email. Google is already plotting to get into our living rooms and kitchens. Where will this stop? Guys, I am getting quite concerned about Google. Who wouldn't be?
I am more concerned that they have ALL OF THIS MONEY and still have not made a cheap, realistic sex doll.
And here's why:
Google is already in our internet search lives, our phones, and email. Google is already plotting to get into our living rooms and kitchens. Where will this stop? Guys, I am getting quite concerned about Google. Who wouldn't be?
I'm not really concerned about Google. I do use Google's search engine (with their analytics servers redirecting to 127.0.0.1). Otherwise, Google is not in my phone or email. They're also not going to get into my living room or kitchen without a drop-dead amazing product, and I'm fairly confident they won't be able to impress me enough with anything they could offer. Probably the fact that they're the second largest ISP is more concerning to me than any of that other stuff, but I also don't have any reason to trust Google any less than any other company. Somebody has to be the second largest ISP. Until Google demonstrates some serious breach of privacy, I guess I don't really mind that it's them.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
This has nothing to do with how much data the company serves. It is a measure of how much content flows over the company's pipes. AFAIK, Akamai doesn't have it's own pipes - they buy transit just like everyone else. Google on the otherhand purchased large amounts of dark fiber after the dot-com bust, and use it to decrease their bandwidth costs.
Google is not an ISP. They are a content provider with a whole bunch of really good peering contracts and private fiber. They are not (yet) an ISP.
ISPs provide Internet service to end users. I don't even include transport providers (Level3, UUnet, Sprint, GBLX, etc.) as ISPs.
There are not many pure ISPs left. Clearwire is about the only one I can think of on a national scale.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.