Photos, Lost-n-Found

Lost & Found: SANOG 8 attendants can mark this Lost & Found page where we will list any items that are found in the event. You can report your lost items via the comments on the same page.

Event Photos: If you are capturing digital snapshot of the workshops or the so-called Hallway Track, use the tags sanog and sanog8 so that all of us can keep a track of your photos on-line at flickr.

Weather & KESC turn pleasant to welcome SANOG VIII

Karachi’s Weather and Karachi Electric Supply Corporation simultaneously turned pleasant to welcome the start of SANOG VIII today. With temperature dropping down from 30 degree Celsius to 29 degree Celsius and KESC promising about no more load-shedding related outages, we all hope that the great start of SANOG VIII will prevail all the way till the Gala Dinner of 4th August 2006.

Back at the event venue, Parallel Workshops are taking place as planned. Participants can download the slides from here and here.

Participants and media representatives are requested to tag their digital photos of the event with ‘sanog8‘ when putting them online at Flickr. We will be showcasing nicely taken snapshots of the event here on this blog as they come in.

Cisco Crowd for SANOG VIII

Okay, SANOG VIII is diamond sponsored by Cisco Systems and no wonder given the enthusiasim Cisco has always shown towards parenting and nurturing such activities. One of the interesting aspects of SANOG VIII and its Cisco sponsorship is the fact that the event has attracted the most talented expatriate Pakistanis that work at Cisco. Twelve speakers from the Thirteen Cicso Systems representatives belong to Pakistan. List of speakers from Cisco Systems follows:

1. Yusuf Bhaiji
   
2. Khalid Raza
3. Philip Smith
4. Salman Asadullah
5. Mosaddaq Turabi
6. Mukhtiar Shaikh
7. Faraz Shamim
   
8. Asim Khan
9. Zeeshan Naseh
10. Faisal Chaudhry
11. Moiz Moizuddin
12. Syed Khurram
13. Phillip Harris
    

Let us hope that SANOG VIII would be an interesting event for all of them and that the ball will start rolling for more such geek-studded events taking place in Pakistan.

Update: You can see the snapshots related to Cisco crowd at SANOG8 here.

SANOG VIII Draws Closer

As we gather for the first ever SANOG event – SANOG VIII – in Pakistan, a number of thoughts come to the mind of those attending the event from the local industry. Is this another ‘IT event’ similar to those that are held throughout the year in expo centers where ear-deafening music is played and life-large LCD and plasma displays show movies and music videos that have no relevance to IT and Networking? Candidly speaking, in these events, knowledge-transfer is the name of collecting (literally) kilograms of glossy brochures that are only good for fanning yourself some much needed air when the electricity utility company tries to take you back to dark ages. And of course, you can make a few friends and win a couple of dialup Internet hours.

SANOG provides a forum that is based on knowledge-transfer, learning and exchanging information with like-minded and counterparts from our very own region. As the program continues for the planned 9 days, participants would see a number of formats each with its unique benefits and advantages. The workshops (on Network Security, Routing and DNS) provide hands-on training and touring experience to the participants. The tutorials, presented by industry experts, often those who have written or contributed to Internet standards (called RFCs and Drafts) once again provide excellent exposure to the relevant areas and a chance to interact with the tutors. The conference provides a social gathering where one can meet with and build contacts for future interaction with counterparts from the region. This provides for a fantastic uptake of projects and initiatives that are based on mutual co-operations.

Talking more about the topics and discussion domains that are being taken up in this event, I would like to briefly take you on a tour of why each of the stuff being discussed here is unusually important to us – here in Pakistan.

As more and more backbones land into Pakistan – on different physical medias both from the shore of Karachi and those from Europe/Turkey and India, service providers in Pakistan will have an irresistible temptation to ‘go multi-home’. Interconnections between major service providers in Pakistan remains what I prefer to call ‘exercise early in the morning’ – you know its good for you but you don’t do it. Hopefully, when interactions such as SANOG VIII will result first in social and then physical networking of service providers of Pakistan, inter-operator routing will come up as a significant practice area where we will need knowledgeable staff in abundance. As you can see, this is one of the topics of the workshops taking place at SANOG VIII.

There is a serious dearth of IPv4 addresses on the Internet today. As broadband deployment gets underway in Pakistan, more and more IPv4 addresses would be required to provide end-to-end connectivity for the people who use this network. Limited IPv4 addresses availability asks for various forms of Network Address Translations and Port Address Translations gymnastics that are not easy to implement, are often non-standard and result in broken end-to-end connectivity. Given the fact that we might have to live with IPv4 for a considerable time to come, it is important that these network concepts are clearly understood and tackled accordingly. For example, providing security and voice over a ‘NAT-ridden’ network is a big challenge with intricacies of their own.

This brings us to the topic of IPv6. IPv6 promises, among many other things, end-to-end connectivity between communicating users. This end-to-end connectivity is far more capable than the NAT/PAT based connectivity that has several show-stopping short-comings. It is imperative that the engineer and design staff engaged in the networking domain of local organizations not only understands the true importance of IPv6 adoption but are actually an advocates of this transition from IPv4 to IPv6. From an optimistic view point, Pakistan stands a very good chance of adopting IPv6 early-on as the country is yet to see a mass-scale broadband deployment.

It is a known fact that mass adoption of broadband Internet and electronic consumer-based commerce go hand-in-hand with each one complimenting and proving catalytic to the expansion of other. Consumer-based ecommerce cannot and will not flourish unless standards-based privacy, credibility is offered to the end-users as a base offering. Knowledge, technical know-how and philosophy of electronic commerce, its benefits, its pitfalls and social impacts all need to be understood not only by the engineers and technicians that run the show in the local industry but also by the masses. Networking service providers in the local industry also need to take a conscious-driven approach in offering solutions to the local industry customers. As many industry insiders would readily testify, current solutions offered to the industry by Internet and network service providers are often based on false notions of security and often without a clue of basic services that should be provided to the enterprise user. This can only happen when standards and best practices win the hearts of the engineers and solutions designer that go out to the market and offer their services.

SANOG VIII should also go a long way in igniting the spark of ‘interaction-with-a-purpose’ within the local technology practitioners. The numerous marketing and promotional events that Pakistan has been witnessing in the recent years must have been helpful in their respective goals but to date, we have not seen any assembly of the community that has defined purposes of knowledge transfer, information sharing and interaction building. One of the success of SANOG VIII would be a continuous and almost institutionalization of ‘networking of the networkers’.

Such social networking of the people involved in the technological domains of the local industry will result in things that have been felt necessary for a long time but are yet to see the light of the day. Thinking off the head, a number of such projects come to mind – such as neutral Internet Exchanges, community driven local content hosting services, identity management etc. These are not new concepts; rather we have been hearing about them for a long time now. However, the expected social networking between the local technologists should result in these dreams and wishes coming true for the benefit of all.

No discussion of contemporary Internet is complete without the mention of the menace of Spam. Defined as commercial, unsolicited bulk email, Spam is one of the core problems of today’s Internet and has far-reaching technical and social effects. Since this problem has its root in the various design bugs that the early Internet was born with, a complete technical solution for it remains a distant promise. The other course, then, that is left for the industry to follow is to tackle the problem at the social level. Effective legislation, vigilant reporting systems, informed end-users and responsible industry behavior are some of the strong armaments against this evil. The audience might be surprised to know that for a long time, a number of Internet Service Providers in Pakistan actually survived by knowingly providing safe-heavens to spammers from North America on their machines and transit bandwidth. The amount of ‘bad press’ Pakistan attracted due to such acts is still a part of the Internet archives for anyone to witness. A collective effort – from strong technical anti-spam measures taken up by Internet service providers to responsible behavior by the marketing industry to zero-spam-tolerance attitude by end users can make a big difference.

Launch of IPv6 Forum Pakistan

Karachi/Islamabad/Luxembourg, July/August , 2006 – The IPv6 Forum and its 35 worldwide affiliates are embarking on a large-scale promotion plan in the emerging nations. Pakistan is the newest country to join this initiative with the creation of the IPv6 Forum Pakistan under the leadership of Mr. Shurjeel Tahir, Mr. Salman Asadullah and Mr. Yusuf Bhaiji

The prime objective of this initiative is to promote deployment and swifter uptake of the new Internet using the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) with support from industrial, educational and research communities and government agencies enabling equitable access to technology and knowledge by extending to it a strong voice and a legitimate representation in the new Internet world.

The IPv6 Forum Pakistan will be launched during the two IPv6 Summits organized in Karachi and Islamabad on August 5 & 6 by the Networkers Society of Pakistan (NSP) closely working with the leaders of the IPv6 Forum and the IPv6 Forum Pakistan. The event is generously sponsored by Cisco Systems.

“The leaders of the IPv6 Forum Pakistan are bringing IPv6 to Pakistan to extend to its national Internet community a strong voice and legitimate representation in the new Internet world to enable equal access to knowledge and education on New Generation Internet technologies and create momentum in deploying IPv6 for the national good”, states Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum President.

“The IPv6 Forum Pakistan should win key stakeholders from government, industry and academia to toil together and design the IPv6 roadmap and vision for Pakistan to be among the first nations to embrace the New Internet based on IPv6″ states Shurjeel Tahir, Chair IPv6 Forum Pakistan

“Enabling the masses to have Internet access and other services using high speed fixed/mobile technologies result in a massive numbers of active nodes. IPv6 is uniquely positioned to address these emerging needs.” “states Salman Asadullah, VP, IPv6 Forum Pakistan & Technical Leader, Cisco Systems

“Being late could sometimes be advantageous – especially in the fast changing IT and Telecom world of today. With a tremendous potential that is yet to be realized for Internet products and services, Pakistan is all set for adopting IPv6 early on and reap its many benefits. As a result-oriented and passion-driven organization, Networkers’ Society of Pakistan is pursuing techno-academic endeavours for taking ahead the cause of IPv6 adoption in Pakistan. NSP is drawing fuel from the the ever-expanding pool of expatriate Pakistanis involved in the cutting edge next generation Internetworking technologies. NSP will continue to facilitate organization of more such events in Pakistan in the coming days.” states Yusuf Bhaiji, VP Technology, IPv6 Forum Pakistan; Chairman, Networkers Society of Pakistan, & Program Manager, Cisco Systems.

“I feel big drivers for IPv6 are ubiquity and mobility. Our industry has realized that the biggest success for internet applications is bandwidth and next expansion will come when you have bandwidth with mobility. When you combine the two you have no choice but to move towards IPv6, because it is efficiently designed for mobility and of course gives you unlimited address space thus providing you end to end ubiquitous network” states Khalid Raza – VP, IPv6 Forum, Distinguished Engineer, Cisco Systems.

The Internet uses Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) for the last 2 decades. IPv4 is showing signs of strains especially in its limited address space and its fast depletion. IPv6 preserves everything that’s good about today’s Internet – and adds much more: unlimited address space to connect everyone and everything, stateless auto-configuration, seamless mobility, automated network management, mandatory security and new optional service levels.

The agenda and venue for Karachi and Islamabad can be found here and here.

About the IPv6 Forum Pakistan

The IPv6 Forum Pakistan is a chapter of the IPv6 Forum dedicated to the advancement and propagation of IPv6 (Internet Protocol, version 6) in Pakistan. Comprised of individual members, rather than corporate sponsors, the mission is to provide technical leadership and innovative thought for the successful integration of IPv6 into all facets of networking and telecommunications infrastructure, present and future.

About the IPv6 Forum

The IPv6 Forum is a world-wide consortium of leading Internet service vendors, National Research & Education Networks (NRENs) and international ISPs, with a clear mission to promote IPv6 by improving market and user awareness, creating a quality and secure New Generation Internet and allowing world-wide equitable access to knowledge and technology. The key focus of the IPv6 Forum today is to provide technical guidance for the deployment of IPv6. IPv6 Summits are organized by the IPv6 Forum and staged in various locations around the world to provide industry and market with the best available information on this rapidly advancing technology.

About The Networkers Society of Pakistan (NSP)

The Networkers’ Society of Pakistan (NSP) is the first national, nonprofit organization for the benefit of everyone involved in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry. NSP’s mission is to enhance the skills of ICT professionals particularly those who have embarked upon or pursuing a Network and Communication career. NSP will help them to maintain the competitive edge by organizing various Free Technology Sessions, Boot camps, Seminars & Trainings by Certified Professionals from prestigious organizations on very nominal charges. Our founding members include top-notch Pakistani ICT professionals from all over the world. Society’s honorary members include personalities who have played pivotal role in the promotion of IT education in Pakistan.

SANOG VIII

South Asian Network Operator Group (SANOG), the premier social circle and organization of Internet and network operators in South Asia, is holding its Eight Conference – SANOG VIII for the first time in Pakistan.

SANOG was started to bring together operators for educational as well as co-operation. SANOG provides a regional forum to discuss operational issues and technologies of interest to data operators in the South Asian Region. The main objective is educational, but at the same time gives vendors a chance to talk to engineers about newer technology and products on the sidelines. Engineers get to talk to each other about experiences, benefit the entire community. This non commercial people networking are in line with established practices like NANOG in North America, RIPE Meetings in Europe and APRICOT in Asia.

SANOG provides the ideal platform for internetworkers to interact and co-operate and gain invaluable knowledge-transfer and participate in regional network cooperation and policy & consensus development.

SAGOG VIII is happening for the first time in Pakistan and is a matter of true pride. The event is an extensive affair of 9 days and comprises of various workshops, tutorials, conference, social event and closing dinner. The event will provide an opportunity for the local networking and data communication industry professionals to interact and intermingle with top professional and area experts from the region and around the globe.

Starting from 27th August, 2006 at a local hotel in Karachi, the event is being sponsored enthusiastically by the parent bodies of the Internet social fabric such as Internet Society (ISOC), Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), Asia Pacific Internet Association (APIA), Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), global industry leaders such as Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Intel and a wide spectrum of local industry leaders of services and products.

The event requires registration for participation. Event registration is available online at http://www.sanog.org/sanog8. On-spot payment option is also available at the start of the event. Passport registrations allow for full participation of 9 days in the event for those interested in gaining the maximum out of the precious event.

SANOG VIII will be hosted in Karachi, Pakistan by the Networkers’ Society of Pakistan (NSP). NSP is the first national, nonprofit organization for the benefit of everyone involved in the Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry.