IDENTIFY AND AVOID SINGLE POINTS OF FAILURE

Promoting resilient Internet infrastructure across the South Pacific

Geophysical events are becoming increasingly common worldwide. The Pacific is not immune. Recent disruptions caused by the Hunga Tonga eruption and Cyclone Gabrielle show the damages such events can cause. VULGEO is a collaborative research project that identifies services critical during such events and works to eliminate single points of failure in these systems. It is supported by a Catalyst Grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand.

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Why This Work Matters

The Pacific has unique geographic constraints. Many countries connect through a single submarine cable. That cable is a single point of failure, but the problem runs deeper. Even if local infrastructure survives, the services people need (government websites, emergency information, payment systems, authentication providers) may be hosted overseas, routed through hubs like Fiji or Samoa that are themselves vulnerable.

Recent events have repeatedly demonstrated the impact of Internet outage resulting from systems with single points of failure. Whether due to consolidation of network services 1, 2, 3, 4 or from more localised geophysical events such as the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption, and Cyclone Gabrielle. These events make it clear that services further afield often depend on such vulnerable services and can impact users and Internet service providers far from the disaster themselves.

Many such failure points originate in commercial decisions based on price and day-to-day performance. The decision makers often do not realise that everyone else relies on the same at-risk resource. This leads to the following questions:

  • Where is your e-mail server?
  • Where does your payment gateway operate from?
  • If you use third-party authentication service, what happens when they have an outage?
  • Where is your national emergency website hosted?

Many local services are not local at all. A New Zealand emergency management domain may resolve to a server in Sydney. A civil defence shelter map may be hosted in the United States. If the cable is cut, that information is unreachable when people need it most. This is even more the case with smaller countries such as those in the South Pacific.

Focus Areas

Community Connectivity

Understand last-mile realities, local operating constraints, and continuity needs during disruptions.

Resilient infrastructure

Map dependencies, redundancy options, and practical infrastructure upgrades across the region.

Policy and capacity

Translate technical evidence into planning guidance, training, and operational coordination.

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