UPDATED 15:03 EDT / SEPTEMBER 09 2015

NEWS

Cutting out the craziness of the Wild Wild West Internet | #CCL2015

“The Internet is the Wild Wild West. With Direct Connect [a peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol] you’re cutting out the craziness of the Internet, connecting directly with businesses you know, businesses you trust,” said Shafiek Peck, lead network engineer at Zendesk, Inc.

John Furrier and Jeff Frick, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, discuss the benefits and negatives of direct connection with Peck during an interview at Console Connect LIVE 2015 at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco. Peck admitted he is constantly worried about malicious activity, as Internet networking leaves the enterprise vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

DDoS is bad, m’kay?

According to Peck, it’s not if, but when the malicious attacks happen, and at Zendesk it is occurring with increasing frequency. Asked by Furrier just how bad it is, Peck admitted, “I certainly lose sleep over it.” As a host for the gaming industry, Zendesk receives collateral damage from gamers who attack a gaming company that has upset them, and Peck said that the impact is both financial and emotional: “You feel violated.”

With a team focused only on DDoS mitigation strategies, Zendesk spends a lot of time and expense on firefighting. Peck said: “If we can reduce this even by smallest amount, it makes sense for us.” He sees returning to direct connection as not a step backwards, but a “new way of thinking, a new way of connecting to your apps.” Having the speed of SaaS applications but on a network that is under your control is the “best of both worlds,” according to Peck.

DevOps not a fad

Peck told Furrier and Frick that even the largest enterprises are moving to DevOps methodology. “Any time we can click a button and fix something, we’re obviously going to leverage that,” he explained. Console, Inc. facilitates the process of peer-to-peer networking by removing the need for a manual interface.

Social network meets networking

Peck especially enjoys the social aspect of Console, where you are able to see a catalog of who is connected, view profiles of individual engineers and team members, and send a request to peer with one click. “When you can see who is on other end of request, it adds a human touch to it,” Peck said.

According to Peck, direct connection brings down costs, lowering the barrier of entry to the peering world. “It’s being able to peer without building out a peering infrastructure – that’s paramount,” he said. “Basically, you just have a connection to IX, and from there you can connect to whoever you want.”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Console Connect LIVE 2015.

Photo by SiliconAngle

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