Internet services between India and Europe were
disrupted after two undersea internet cables in the Mediterranean
were damaged.
One UK software company told Computer Weekly that it had taken
four hours to send a 3K file to its offices in India.
Network operator
Interoute re-established
business-critical links within five hours for its Indian clients,
including a bank and a large IT outsourcer.
British Airways said it had been aware of the issue and was able
to reroute communications and use alternative call centres to
alleviate any problems.
Services went down last Wednesday at 2.30pm Indian local time
when the cables were damaged. The cause is being investigated, but
repairs could take up to 15 days, according to RS Perhar, secretary
of the ISP Association of
India.
"Two
fibre connections carrying internet traffic along the western
route towards Europe have been cut. Internet traffic is being
rerouted along other fibre connections, but bandwidth will be
throttled along these routes to cope with the transfer of traffic,"
he said.
Perhar added that the main ISPs in India used more than one line
connection to serve businesses, but in this case the main and
backup lines were near each other, resulting in the downtime.
India is a prime location for outsourcing. Martyn Hart at the
National Outsourcing
Association said that 40% of UK software development was
undertaken in the subcontinent.
Heath Jackson, director at Xantus Consulting, advised businesses
with outsourced IT that relied on internet connections to India to
improve
resilience by specifying in their outsourcing contract that
main and backup lines be sourced through separate ISPs and
cables.