Bach Seat

The 2014 FIFA World Cup games are underway and run until July 13. Normally I would not bring this up here, since most Americans ignore soccer. However web access security firm, Wavecrest Computing, make of the Cyblock web filter, reports that there has been a 32% increase in Americans interest in soccer since the broadcast of the last World Cup in 2010.

In addition to the uptick in interest, the American team won a match this time around, which will garner even more interest. This increased interest in soccer can have an impact on your Internet bandwidth. The author asks what happens to your Internet bandwidth if most of your employees start streaming the games or highlights simultaneously, can it sustain the demand and still do business?

42% of IT professionals state that popular events impact their network. How many simultaneous users watching game highlights does it take to saturate your bandwidth? The article calculates that just 2 streaming users result in a 1 Mbps download, while 17 users equal a huge 10 Mbps. Quickly overwhelming Internet bandwidth.

How many simultaneous users watching World Cup game highlights does it take to saturate your bandwidth?

Given the time difference with Brazil, most of the 64 matches will be played during U.S. office hours, and streaming video could deal a major blow to corporate network and application performance according to the blog. When the first match of the day kicks off, smartphones, tablets, and laptops will be streaming footage live from offices around the U.S.

In addition to the major spike in bandwidth usage, Wavecrest whose products help organizations manage and control employee Web activity reminds us there are World Cup 2014 malware sites are out there. According to a recent survey from Osterman Research, malware has infiltrated 74% of organizations via the Web.

The firm’s products can also address the lost productivity and revenue as staff watches the matches and not working. Most of the matches will be played during U.S. office hours. The lost productivity caused by watching the World Cup can total 99 hours average wages lost per hour each day according to Wavecrest. The Wavecrest systems can monitor, report, filter, and throttle employees’ bandwidth use.

In order to keep pace with the staff, CyBlock products can be set up to block Web access by categories and by half-hour so employees can access sports sites on their lunch break or after hours.

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I have been there done that. In 2012 Michigan, Michigan State, and the University of Detroit all played in the NCAA Basketball tournament and the entire 250 Mbps Internet pipe was down to a crawl for most of the afternoon.

There are other tools to use, we were using an M-86 content filter then. We used that to block much more than you would think to get control of the network. In addition to the M-86 default groups, we had to block all the ESPN sites, NCAA sites, and CBS.

We also had a PacketShaper at our disposal and were doing to throttle streaming video, but there were legitimate users of streaming video.

A lot of this comes down to policy and discipline.  Is watching NCAA hoops or soccer a business need? Is there leadership to enforce the AUP and tell people to stop wasting resources?

Related articles

• Things To Look Out For This World Cup 2014 (dtutimes.wordpress.com)

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.