By Gerard Best

The picturesque Eastern Caribbean island of Saint Lucia will be the backdrop to the highly anticipated gathering of the men and women responsible for securing and administering computer networks across the Caribbean.
From April 27 to May 1, the Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG) will hold their ninth regional meeting, a significant forum that has been a key role in coordinating and equipping the region’s technical community.

“CaribNOG plays a unique role in the region’s technology ecosystem. It is a volunteer-based community dedicated to strengthening the Caribbean indigenous capacity to address the rapidly evolving technology landscape,” explained Bevil Wooding, one of the CaribNOG founders and a main organiser of the event.

“Computer network engineers and technology specialists from across the region and around the world take the time to share their knowledge and experience with the colleagues at CaribNOG,” he added.

Founded in 2010, CaribNOG has been steadily building its reputation as the Caribbean’s most influential and solutions-oriented forum for network engineers and computer technology professionals. The group has also built strong connections with other Network Operator Groups from around the world, including Latin America, North America and as far as the Pacific.

“CaribNOG members benefit immensely from exposure to experts from around the region and across the globe,” said Jamaican-born Stephen Lee, another CaribNOG founding member and CEO of ArkiTechs Inc., a US-based technology firm.

“Topics range from protecting local networks from hackers and cyber-criminals to deploying broadband and the future of the Internet,” he added.

Network security, Internet exchange points, cloud computing and global network trends are among the topics to be addressed at CaribNOG’s 9th regional meeting.

“Saint Lucia is really looking forward to hosting this important meeting,” said Simon Alexander, local organiser and IT Manager at the Organisation for Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission.

“The previous CaribNOG gathering in Curacao drew over 100 persons from more than 15 countries. The international nature of gathering affords us the opportunity to showcase Saint Lucia and the OECS to the world as a significant technology-enabled destination.”

The CaribNOG 9 meeting is being co-hosted by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and is also supported by the regional and global Internet community, including the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (Ams-IX), the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, Columbus Communications, Google, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), the Internet Society, the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), ArkiTechs Inc, Akamai Inc., Microsoft and Packet Clearing House.

CaribNOG 9 will feature a slate of experts, including Arturo Servin (Google Inc.); Carlos Martínez and Alejandro Acosta (LACNIC); Bevil Wooding (PCH); Mark Kosters (ARIN); Claire Craig (UWI); Albert Daniels (ICANN); Shernon Osepa (ISOC); Steve Spence and Stephen Lee (Arkitechs).

This ninth event comes on the heels of 2014 meetings in Dominica and Curacao.

More information is available on the official event website, www.caribnog.org.

IMAGE: Google IT Expert, Arturo Servin speaks at recent CaribNOG event in Trinidad. Courtesy: Caribbean Network Operators Group