Undersea cables carrying Internet traffic are vulnerable to disruption in many ways. So a single fault, or maybe even five of them in quick succession, may not be very difficult to imagine. But just how slender the threads are that bind us only hits home when a simple thing like an Internet railway ticket takes ages to materialise. It becomes immediately clear how global the world has truly become, and how an aquatic butterfly flapping its wings?metaphorically speaking?can set off a tornado in offices far away across the high seas. Indian businesses dependent on the Internet have experienced severe slowdowns and bandwidth clogs over the past fortnight or so. In all, five separate cable cuts have been detected since January 23. Some have blamed fishing trawlers and ship anchors, while others suspect these to be deliberate acts of terrorist groups. Regardless of what investigations reveal, the disruption has again underlined the need for businesses and other information dependent units to draw up contingency plans. As a recent Gartner report rightly points out, business resumption planning is of vital importance.
One could argue that in the face of a determined terrorist attack, there is no safety in numbers, so a series of backup cables is not an effective safeguard, unless the web can be so intricately maze-wired as to be foolproof. This would amount to bandwidth redundancy, but then, the costs will have to be borne. Connectivity is critically important.
Recall that the earthquake near Taiwan in December 2006 had also upset undersea cables, affecting services around Asia. Since then, many telecom companies have added new land-based routes over Russia. Here too, that crisis generated greater interest in the undersea cable business, with Bharti Airtel, VSNL and seven other global telecom firms building a new submarine cable stretching from India to France via the Middle East. This is the one that has been cut in more than one place. More effort is needed. As Trai has pointed out, better cooperation among key players would help. Another solution might be to link as many alternative communication technologies as possible, including satellite connections that can seamlessly pick up any slack detected in cables on the ground. To keep costs low, however, experts suggest tech platforms like MPLS that make re-routing in a crisis easier. Web security is not to be taken lightly.