Promoting Local Content Hosting to Develop the Internet Ecosystem, A Case Study of Rwanda

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Promoting Local Content Hosting to Develop the Internet Ecosystem March 2015

Local Content Hosting

Introduction

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As access infrastructure is more available, focus turning to local content

Noticed three related points on local content:

§  Most, if not all, developing countries already have local content, typically provided by local newspapers, radio stations, and other businesses and individuals.

§  This content tends to be hosted abroad, even when there are local data centers. The performance of these websites is often poor..

•  Most IXP connections in Africa are between access networks, few content networks.

Used Rwanda as a case study, in partnership with the Rwandan ICT Ministry and Rwandan ICT Association (RICTA)


Most Consumption Still International and Costly:Capacity Costs to Europe per Mbps/Month in USD

95+% of African Internet consumptions is international

Source: Analysys Mason/ISOC

~$650

~$50

~$125

Local Content Hosting 4

Starting point: Top RW commercial websites all hosted abroad Top 20 Website Server Location 1. IGIHE www.igihe.com United States 2. Umuseke www.umuseke.rw United States 3. Kigali Today www.kigalitoday.com United States 4. Umuryango www.umuryango.com United States 5. Inyarwanda www.inyarwanda.com United States 6. Tohoza www.tohoza.com Switzerland 7. The New Times www.newtimes.co.rw United States 8. Imali www.imali.biz United States 9. Rwanda Directorate General of

Immigration and Emigrationwww.migration.gov.rw Rwanda

10. University of Rwanda www.nur.ac.rw Rwanda 11. College of Science and Technology,

University of Rwandawww.kist.ac.rw Rwanda

12. Rwanda Broadcasting Agency www.orinfor.gov.rw/ www.rab.co.rw Rwanda

13. Living in Kigali www.livinginkigali.com United States 14. Ubugingo www.ubugingo.com United States15. Rumalex www.rumalex.net Germany 16. Zion Temple www.ziontemple.rbm.tv United States 17. Job in Rwanda www.jobinrwanda.com France 18. Rwanda National Police www.police.gov.rw Rwanda 19. Rwanda Revenue Authority www.rra.gov.rw Rwanda 20. YEGO Rwanda www.yegorwanda.net United States

Source: Top 20, RICTA, 2014; Server Location, ip2location.com


Study: Three Areas of Investigation

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Economic/Business

•  Costs of local hosting solution versus status quo (for local and international content) and business drivers

Legal/Policy

•  Issues that would inhibit local hosting, including intermediate liability, copyright, or lack of certainty.

Technical/Skills

•  Quality of local hosting environment, skills, technology availability, connections to ISPs and IXP


Status quo

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Local ISP

Local

Overseas

Data Centre

Users

Latency: high

$ Hosting cost: low

$$$ Transit costs: high

Local ISP

Content Developer

International Carrier


Hosting abroad imposes a negative

externality on local ISPs


Impact of hosting content locally

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Local ISP

Data centre

Local

Users

IXP

Latency: lower

$

Usage: greater

$ Hosting cost: higher

Transit costs: lower

Content Developer

Local ISP

$ Content

developers must have an incentive to

bear additional cost


Local ISP

Local

Overseas International

Carrier

Users

9 Mbps peak $13,500 / year ave ~$0 in RW = $13,500 costs / year ave

8GB website $149.99 in US $261 in RW = $111 savings per year (in US)

Content Developer

Local ISP

Data Centre


Quantifying the negative externality


Website IP Address Hosting Location

From Europe

(Stockholm)

From Rwanda (Kigali)

Peak Readings Rwanda

(Kigali, PM)

rra.gov.rw 197.243.16.110 Rwanda 199.7 9.3 10.5 rba.co.rw 197.243.16.110 Rwanda 200 7.7 9.2 ricta.org.rw 41.74.173.252 Rwanda 199.8 4.6 6.3 tohoza.com 80.80.228.26 Switzerland 44.4 309.9

800-1000

6-22% packet

loss

igihe.com 142.4.9.39 USA 160.7 378.7 jobinrwanda.com 154.41.67.10 France 34.6 243.8 newtimes.co.rw 198.154.233.8 USA 165 397.3

Government Services and NRENs are often anchor content tenants,

but more bits need to be local

Latency is also a significant issue for overseas content


Latency Impacts User Engagement and Use

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Impact on on-line gaming usage in Uganda when GamersNights platform moved to a locally routed server 200ms reduction = ~200% more use

Impact on RINEX when Google Global Cache implemented in 2013: Traffic increased x4 and user experience increased


Akamai place a server in Rwanda during our project

Before: 90% below 500 kpbs throughput

After: 50% of users increased throughput above 500 kbps and 5% in excess of 20 Mbps

As performance improved, usage doubled within three months

Akamai results

Increased page views key to convince content developers to increase hosting costs


Initial Findings: Economic/Business Getting Supply and Demand Sides to Meet

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•  Costs of data center operations higher than in the US/Europe

•  Power costs, additional backup and redundancy requirements, Lower economies of scale due to less content and volume etc.

•  Website developers are price sensitive and customer oriented. Place emphasis on low hosting costs, high up-time, and 24/7 customer service.

•  Very low cost options available overseas, including “free” package offers, advanced services

•  Perception on the part of website developers that US/European hosting services are “better” and more reliable than Rwandan services.


Data Centers Flying with Empty Seats

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Local data centers traditionally focused on “First/Business Class” customers (e.g. banks, corporates) •  Data centers in Rwanda have capacity •  Just like an airplane, costs are incurred even if the

data center flies with “empty seats.” •  Growth potential in marketing to smaller websites/

web developers/aggregators. •  Need to grow “Economy Class” hosting packages

Smaller websites should look and ask data centers for local “economy class” hosting offers: •  ~80% traffic for smaller websites is coming to

Rwanda in any case •  Lower latency will improve customer experience,

content engagement, and uptake. •  No protection from cable outages if sites are only

overseas, local mirroring also a consideration


•  Interviewees expressed clarity in understanding of legal issues, licensing / regulatory requirements, and limitations / responsibilities for speech

•  Presence of Google Global Cache and interest in Rwanda by Content Delivery Networks are good signs!

•  International providers weigh legal / policy issues heavily in their decisions to provide in-country delivery

•  Passage of legislation explicitly limiting intermediary liability would be an additional advantage for countries such as Rwanda.

Initial Findings: Legal/Policy •  Legal/Policy issues not raised as a barrier

to local hosting or data center operations


Initial Findings: Technical/Skills

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•  Some webs developers question level of local hosting skills and reliability.

•  Need to separate perception from reality.

•  Evaluate skill sets in key data center operations layers, including: Physical, Operating Systems, and Software/Applications

•  More consistency needed in data collection and analysis by both network providers and website developers.

•  Professionally run IXP in Rwanda – but needs more local content flowing through it

•  Quality data centers in Rwanda, additional investment anticipated

•  No significant barriers reported on ability to acquire technology for data centers/local hosting, but more costly.


Policy/Legal

Technical/ Skills

Economic/Business

Hate speech legislation, but not a driving concern to content developers

Regulatory and legal environment more straightforward than many African countries.

Working on intermediary liability clarification

Positive role in convening stakeholders

Cost and customer service the primary drivers of hosting decisions; Alexa Rankings

Little awareness in market of the impact latency on user experience, or that they could impact it

Data centers focusing on large customers, ignoring aggregators and minnows

Challenging economics for data centers

Under provisioning of international capacity (expensive)

Little traffic data collection and analysis by both service providers and web developers (eg. NetFlows data, website latency tests, etc.)

Perception that local hosting companies lack skills, security (truth vs reality?)

Good IX, but not promoting achievements, impacts.

Other Observations of Note


Category Recommendations General Conduct multi-stakeholder local content forums to raise awareness

on local hosting benefits, discuss issues, and identify market solutions Promote wider implementation of data measurement tools and techniques by relevant stakeholders, including ISPs and content developers

Economic/Business

Match the needs of the Rwandan content market, particularly the growing market in smaller websites Greater focus by content developers on the performance and potential business benefits of local hosting, in addition to cost considerations

Technical/Skills Development of partnerships with government or industry bodies to ensure training for data-centre employees is complete and up to date Greater advertising of existing and new local data-centre capabilities

Policy/Legal Continuing to ensure legal and policy clarity for local content developers, hosting providers, content delivery networks, and other relevant stakeholders Promoting local content development as a government policy priority


•  Most IXP connections in Africa are between eyeball networks

•  Estimated 85,000 m2 raised floor datacenter capacity in Africa (~35% of London)

•  Few Carrier Neutral Data Centers •  Opportunities to develop infrastructure

•  CDN Caches/PoPs in emerging economies have big impact and grow the market. More demand in Africa than you might think!

Localized content in Africa is key to growth

www.internetsociety.org

[email protected] [email protected]

Michael Kende Karen Rose Chief Economist Senior Director

Thank you!

Promoting Local Content Hosting to Develop the Internet Ecosystem, A Case Study of Rwanda

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