South Korea sets site reliability engineering standards for Big Tech
(2021/12/08)
- Reference: 1638943093
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/12/08/south_korea_site_reliability/
- Source link:
South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has offered Big Tech some advice on how to make their services suitably resilient, and added an obligation to notify users – in Korean - when they fail.
The guidelines apply to Google, Meta (parent company of Facebook), Netflix, Naver, Kakao and Wavve. All have been told to improve their response to faults by beefing up preemptive error detection and verification systems, and create back up storage systems that enable quick content recovery.
The guidelines offer methods Big Tech can use to measure user loads, then plan accordingly to ensure their services remain available. Uptime requirements are not spelled out.
[1]
Big techs is already rather good at resilience. Google literally wrote the book on site reliability engineering.
[2]
[3]
The guidelines refer to legislation colloquially known as the "Netflix law" which requires major service outages be reported to the Ministry.
That law builds on another enacted in 2020 that made online content service providers responsible for the quality of their streaming services. It was put in place after a number of outages, including one where notifications of the problem were made on the offending company's social media site – but only in English.
[4]
The new regulations follow South Korean telcos' recent attempts to have platforms that guzzle their bandwidth pay for the privilege. Mobile carrier SK Broadband took [5]legal action in October of this year, demanding Netflix pitch in some cash for the amount of bandwidth that streaming shows – such as Squid Game – consume.
[6]Korea gives Google and Apple another kick for requiring their own payment systems
[7]South Korean privacy watchdog apologises for violating privacy while mediating privacy lawsuit
[8]Netflix shows South Korea a rerun of 'We Won't Pay Your Telcos For Bandwidth'
In response, Netflix pointed at its own free content delivery network, Open Connect, which helps carriers to reduce traffic. Netflix then accused SK Broadband of trying to double up on profits by collecting fees from consumers and content providers at the same time.
For the record, Naver and Kakao pay carriers, while Apple TV+ and Disney+ have at the very least given lip service to the idea.
Korea isn't the only place where telcos have noticed Big Tech taking up more than its fair share of bandwidth. The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) [9]published a letter from ten telco CEOs asking that larger platforms "contribute fairly to network costs". ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/netflix_south_korea_network_use_fees_dispute/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/south_korea_app_store_fines/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/oops_south_korean_privacy_watchdog/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/netflix_south_korea_network_use_fees_dispute/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/30/european_telecommunications_network_operators_association_letter/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The guidelines apply to Google, Meta (parent company of Facebook), Netflix, Naver, Kakao and Wavve. All have been told to improve their response to faults by beefing up preemptive error detection and verification systems, and create back up storage systems that enable quick content recovery.
The guidelines offer methods Big Tech can use to measure user loads, then plan accordingly to ensure their services remain available. Uptime requirements are not spelled out.
[1]
Big techs is already rather good at resilience. Google literally wrote the book on site reliability engineering.
[2]
[3]
The guidelines refer to legislation colloquially known as the "Netflix law" which requires major service outages be reported to the Ministry.
That law builds on another enacted in 2020 that made online content service providers responsible for the quality of their streaming services. It was put in place after a number of outages, including one where notifications of the problem were made on the offending company's social media site – but only in English.
[4]
The new regulations follow South Korean telcos' recent attempts to have platforms that guzzle their bandwidth pay for the privilege. Mobile carrier SK Broadband took [5]legal action in October of this year, demanding Netflix pitch in some cash for the amount of bandwidth that streaming shows – such as Squid Game – consume.
[6]Korea gives Google and Apple another kick for requiring their own payment systems
[7]South Korean privacy watchdog apologises for violating privacy while mediating privacy lawsuit
[8]Netflix shows South Korea a rerun of 'We Won't Pay Your Telcos For Bandwidth'
In response, Netflix pointed at its own free content delivery network, Open Connect, which helps carriers to reduce traffic. Netflix then accused SK Broadband of trying to double up on profits by collecting fees from consumers and content providers at the same time.
For the record, Naver and Kakao pay carriers, while Apple TV+ and Disney+ have at the very least given lip service to the idea.
Korea isn't the only place where telcos have noticed Big Tech taking up more than its fair share of bandwidth. The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) [9]published a letter from ten telco CEOs asking that larger platforms "contribute fairly to network costs". ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YbCQXhthMGuddmMhevUNlgAAAFA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/netflix_south_korea_network_use_fees_dispute/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/south_korea_app_store_fines/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/oops_south_korean_privacy_watchdog/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/netflix_south_korea_network_use_fees_dispute/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/30/european_telecommunications_network_operators_association_letter/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "contribute fairly to network costs"
jmch
"Where is the unfair part of all of this ?"
The providers promise their customers unlimited data volume at a maximum speed which is only theoretical, and they also all slash their headline prices to undercut each other. At the same time, consumers are consuming more and more streaming audio and video at higher and higher quality
Providers are over-promising and underdelivering... but also, following a couple of decades of this cycle, consumer expectation for what is reasonably priced bandwidth is now out of line with what it actually costs to provide that service + infrastructure maintenance and further development. ISPs need to increase their prices to realistically price their service instead of asking content providers to pay extra. But none of them is willing to go first for fear of a mass customer exodus. And one can't blame them either because the second they do you can bet customers, including right here on El Reg, will be up in arms and complaining about crappy service and cost increases.
"contribute fairly to network costs"
I still don't understand that argument.
To connect to the Internet, I pay my provider a monthly due. That is supposed to cover my bandwidth usage.
El Reg has a connection, and it pays its provider as well (probably more than I do). That covers its bandwidth usage.
Where is the unfair part of all of this ?
If it's because there's a carrier between me and El Reg, well it's up to my provider and El Reg's provider to manage the situation. El Reg is not supposed to pay every provider along the way.
This is nonsense.