Internet wizards unite! The South African Network Operators Group (ZANOG) will host a not-to-be missed multi-day, ‘Networking’ conference with three international guest speakers at the uMhlanga Coastlands Hotel on 23 and 24 April. 

ZANOG originated in KwaZulu Natal in 2017, as a dedicated space for internet network operators to connect, share knowledge, collaborate and discuss collective challenges. The thriving organisation rapidly grew to encompass the entire country hosting with several gatherings around the country each year. 

At this conference, there will be over 20 presentations and panel discussion over the 2 days, with a variety of local SA masterminds and informative addresses by American internet expert Jim Cowie, and Dutch specialist, Pim van Pelt, as well as contributions by Sudanese, Sara Alamin.

Cowie’s is a serial entrepreneur and data scientist, with experience as a data storyteller in both the Internet measurement and financial industries. He holds a B.S in Computer Science from Yale University. His talk is titled Contemplating Internet History: Where Do We Go Next?

He will present an overview of the Internet History Initiative: a community effort to identify, preserve, and celebrate the datasets that document the growth of the global internet over the last quarter-century. Mergers and acquisitions, changes of leadership and priorities, and the simple passage of time can all put institutional data collections at risk of loss. He will motivate an alternative approach that preserves Internet measurement data in century-scale storage, in order to support historians and researchers for generations to come.

Dutch guest, van Pelt has a more targeted theme. He started his career as a network engineer in The Netherlands, where he worked for Intouch, Freeler and BIT. He has worked as a Distinguished SRE at Google in Zurich, Switzerland since 2006.

In his talk, he will explore a set of fully open source amd64 based VPP routers, from small (Atom-class, 8 Watts) through to very large (Xeon, 1'000 Watts) and everything in between. Details on build, setup, loadtesting and operating these routers in production will illustrate the feasibility of plain 'off the shelf hardware.

Sara Alamin is co-founder of the Sudan Network Operators Group (sdNOG) and the Interconnection Manager at PCH: an intergovernmental treaty organisation that provides operational support and security to critical internet infrastructure. She will present a talk titled Helping Sudan’s Internet Community in Difficult Times.

The sdNOG Hosting Project is a community effort to support Sudan’s internet users during tough times. With many challenges affecting internet access and local services, it has become harder for people to stay connected and access important online resources. sdNOG used its skills and resources to provide a reliable hosting platform for websites, educational tools, and community services.

She will explain why they started this project, how they are using their resources, and the positive impact it has had. She will also share the challenges they faced. The goal is to show how local technical communities can come together to keep the internet running, even in difficult situations, and maybe to help / inspire others to do good things for their community.

ZANOG continues to grow, driven by the support and dedication of the tech internet community in South Africa. Whether one is based in Africa or anywhere in the world, ZANOG invites interested individuals, organisations and companies be part of this dynamic community.

More info and link to registration: https://nog.net.za/zanog25/. 

Good To Know

Starts 23 Apr 2025 at 08:00

Ends 24 Apr 2025 at 22:00

Coastlands Hotel Umhlanga

329 uMhlanga Rocks Dr,  Umhlanga Ridge, uMhlanga,  South Africa