BCNet service disruptions minimal

It wasn't just vehicle highways that were impacted by mudslides and torrential rain -- the information superhighway took a hit as well, but bounced back due to extensive backup planning.

BCNet provides shared information technology services for higher education and research, including high-speed internet connectivity.

Recent torrential rainfall and resulting mudslides damaged a number of BCNet's carrier infrastructures resulting in significant circuit outages. This included the national backbone circuits, such as the link between Surrey and Edmonton (100G), Surrey and Kelowna (10G), and Vancouver to Kamloops (100G).

By Tuesday morning, BCNet reported that network services had been maintained by rerouting traffic through diverse paths available via Seattle.

BCNet reported the mudslides damaged primary and redundant circuits within British Columbia and, as a result, the traffic had to be rerouted through the diverse paths to Seattle to maintain connectivity to members served by the Prince George, Kamloops, and Kelowna exchanges.

“Despite the massive impacts to infrastructure, the College had zero outage as we routed back to Alberta, south and over to Seattle. Even redundant highway infrastructure failed during this storm, and will take incredible efforts to re-establish access, but the virtual network is able to respond very quickly to maintain service,” said Jordan Perrey, Director of IT Services.