As every year, the celebration of Black Friday and Cyber Monday once again put the stability of the networks of the main international retailers to the test. It is the great litmus test for online commerce, and the truth is that it is not always possible to maintain the necessary level to be able to withstand this avalanche of traffic that occurs in certain time slots.
Normally, the biggest spikes in traffic occur on Black Friday, although Cyber Monday also has grown in popularity over time, and we should not underestimate it. The great discounts that occur on both dates, and the consumerism typical of the dates on which they are celebrated create, after all, the perfect hotbed for those “avalanches” of online shoppers to take place.
According to Mario Calle, Senior Vice President of GTT’s Southern Europe region, the networks will suffer additional pressure throughout the week in which both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are located, and this will make it necessary to resort to those high levels of capacity offered by the main providers of services and network solutions. This extra capacity is essential to prevent the traffic peaks of both events from affecting Internet performance, and to prevent both events from being hampered by global drops.
In that sense, the executive has stressed that not long ago we lived another litmus test. It was during the beginning of the pandemic, when the first confinement took place. Internet traffic increased by 30%, and this forced the operators to work together to be able to increase, very quickly, the capacity of their networks, something essential to be able to guarantee good stability and high performance.
If we focus on 2021, traffic levels in October this year increased by 30% compared to October last year, which means that, with the celebration of Cyber Monday Black Friday, there will be an important peak that will go beyond that figure, and that in theory can be overcome without problems, thanks to that capacity extra that we have already talked about.
Finally, Mario Calle has also commented that:
«For physical store owners, It is also important to optimize networks to serve customers quickly. Automating the latest information on stock availability, order status, and more is key to keeping shelves filled with the latest gifts of the year, starting this Black Friday. Innovations such as the SD-WAN solution are critical to ensuring that retail stores have the necessary bandwidth to stay in touch with the central headquarters and deliver a good shopping experience for customers.
