COVID-19 has already had a major impact on the lives of everybody but things could be about to get worse as the demand for Internet access reaches unprecedented levels. Overall the actual usage may not be significantly increased but the timing and type of usage will suddenly change as soon as the Schools close on Friday. Internet usage used to be spread fairly evenly over the day with Office workers creating peak demand between 9.00 and 5.00 and then as the Office workers headed for home the children went online with their Xboxes, Playstations and Online Games. With Apple, Google and Microsoft employees already working from home you have to appreciate that they are actually contributing to the problem as they remote in to work rather than being in the Office where you might like to thing they are working on fixes for the demand that is going to occur.
People working from home will have about the same demand as they would in the Office if they just work on their own PC but if they remote into the Office and then take over their work PC they have immediately increased their demand. While this is happening in the same household Online gaming will start to place during the working day which doesn't normally occur. Under normal circumstance neither party would be at home so the first battle will be over bandwidth within the same property. However, the main issue is likely to be the overall demand on the World Wide Web.
Xbox Live, Nintendo and Playstation have already been down and people have been struggling to login. On the Business side there has already been a problem with Microsoft Teams which many businesses use to collaborate. The closure of Restaurants, Theatres, Gym's and Businesses has left many people at home and now with the closure of schools it really is everyone. The mix of activities that used to take place has suddenly disappeared leaving everybody demanding web access at the same time. Netflix, Youtube, Smart TV's, Remote working, Online Shopping, Steam, Xbox are all happening at once and this simply hasn't been catered for in the shaping of web traffic because nobody ever imagined it would happen. With many people working from home for the first time they are setting themselves up on new services to collaborate with colleagues and again this demand just wasn't expected. Xboxes, Netflix and Playstations aren't new but with shift workers and varying lifestyles demand was spread throughout a 24 hour period but now everybody wants access between 9.00 and 5.00.
It will be interesting to see how things shape up during the coming weeks but if your favourite system goes down don't expect a quick fix as the person who should be fixing it is probably working from home.
