November 2023 - members-discuss

Questions about the published Draft Agenda and Supporting Documents
by Erik Bais 30 Mar '24

30 Mar '24

Dear Hans Petter, Thank you for providing the supporting documents for the GM in Rome. Before we are going to be in Rome, I have a question for you and I cc:'ed the member-discuss ML, as I'm sure some other members might also have a couple questions on the following topic. I would like to ask you, how the RIPE NCC thought it was a great slide to present just a 2Milj Euro budget cut .. as if it was the best it could do .. given that it was stated on the last GM .. that it wasn't going to increase the budget .. And with the inflation, basically what that means .. you need to cut cost and cut hard ... So I would assume that the Director of the NCC .. would see this as an opportunity ... and discuss with management and staff, what is excessive .. and where can we 'kill our darlings' ... As for any writer that needs to do proper editing of a long novel .. I get the feeling that you didn't went/wanted to go through that process .. not as fierce as that the membership have suggested you to do .. And I would suggest that this budget document, need some serious editing ... One of the reasons for my disbelieve that you did that process already properly .. is that if I see an IT spend of 7.6 milj. Euro (2023 ) and you proudly present that the IT spend for 2024 is going to be 7.4 milj Euro .. Either you have a HUGE technical debt that you can't manage .. or you didn't went head to head with your CTO / IT Director ... and stopped asking for more cuts until he actually sad in your office crying in despair. Just an example ... If I'm correct, the RIPE NCC is currently in a datacenter facility in Amsterdam .. with roughly 80 cabinets filled with $random equipment, almost half of that (most likely as my gut feeling is ) to store and hold every single ICMP ping/trace life on disk etc.. since the conception of the Atlas project.. And the best you can come back to the community is .. we've managed to reduce the cost of Atlas with 50.000 euro p/yr ? The proper question to ask is, do we need every freaking completed test to store that into infinity on spinning disks .. because we never asked the community if we can just through away every PING test result after 60 days . and save 20 cabinets in storage, equipment and power usage. Who are you kidding ... And that colocation / hw cost is next to the already half milj. Euro charge for the public cloud (AWS) already (per year..) So I seriously wonder if you asked the right questions instead of just tried to maintain the status quo ... One of those 'services' that I seriously think that the NCC should step away from .. is providing 'secondary' DNS server for reverse dns .. I mean .. come on .. how hard is that for the community to manage that by themselves .. and just because the NCC did that since the conception of the NCC ( or at least longer than I can remember ) .. is that still something that people use and expect the NCC to provide ? It might be good suggestion to setup an impartial task force / audit team.. reporting to the Executive Board (EB) .. that does (IT) spending audits .. looking for projects that are WAY over budgets, technical debt, overspending due to historic reasoning etc.. These should be externals to the RIPE NCC (staff), but with lots of different views and know how to spot a pet project when they see one .Or project, because we always did it that way. And then report to the EB with suggestions on how to act on it. I think it is then up to the EB, to discuss those findings internally and decide to have the discussion with the RIPE NCC Management on how to change and reduce the technical debt and how to actual cut cost. I have a gut feeling that the EB isn't getting all the information during the EB meetings or during the follow up's or it takes AGES to obtain the information or it is based on consolidated info, with 3 layers of management cutting and rewriting in between. The "Kill Your Darlings Audit Team" ( KYDAT ), should be the fresh look, to see if the NCC is still doing the right things .. and if the RIPE NCC management is managing towards a more agile and leaner future. This doesn't mean .. let's host everything at the public cloud and see how long the credit card keeps clearing .. it means that common sense with eye's from the outside of the RIPE NCC, might help to provide a better insight. The benefit of KYDAT is that they aren't 'burdened' with employee politics or with smoke and mirrors of certain management that is withholding / stalling documents of how bad it really is .. they will look for themselves .. and report and suggest. I don't envy the role that you have been tasked with ... But I was expecting something more serious .. Regards, Erik Bais

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New on RIPE Labs: Who’s Waiting on the IPv4 Waiting List?
by Antony Gollan 24 Nov '23

24 Nov '23

Dear colleagues, Four years after our IPv4 waiting list became active, and with more than a thousand LIRs in the queue for an allocation, how successful has the list been at providing at least a minimal amount of IPv4 space to newcomers? We take a closer look at some of the numbers in this article on RIPE Labs: https://labs.ripe.net/author/antony_gollan/whos-waiting-on-the-ipv4-waiting… Regards Antony Gollan Communications Team Manager RIPE NCC

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RIPE Labs article on RIPE NCC's External Engagement and Community plans in 2024.
by hmi＠ripe.net 21 Nov '23

21 Nov '23

Dear all, Earlier this week, I published a RIPE Labs article in the series focused on the RIPE NCC’s Draft Activity Plan and Budget 2024: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/november-2023/documen… In the article I talk about: Sustaining the Commons - RIPE NCC External Engagement and Community in 2024. https://labs.ripe.net/author/hisham_ibrahim/sustaining-the-commons-ripe-ncc… If you have feedback on the draft document or my article, please let me know on the mailing list or in person next week in Rome at RIPE 87. Kind regards, Hisham Ibrahim Chief Community Officer RIPE NCC

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RIPE Labs Article on RIPE NCC Registry
by James Kennedy 08 Nov '23

08 Nov '23

Dear all, Earlier this week, I published an article on RIPE Labs where I look at the core work within the Registry and how I see our plans shaping up for the future, including draft activities and budget for next year: https://labs.ripe.net/author/james-kennedy/safeguarding-our-core-function-i… This is the second article in a series focused on the RIPE NCC’s Draft Activity Plan and Budget 2024 which you can find at: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/november-2023/documen… If you have feedback on the draft document or my article, please let me know on the mailing list. Kind regards, James Kennedy Chief Registry Officer RIPE NCC

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Open House on Draft Activity Plan and Budget 2024: Recording Available
by Fergal Cunningham 06 Nov '23

06 Nov '23

Dear all, Last week we had an Open House on the Draft RIPE NCC Activity Plan and Budget 2024. The recording is now available at: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/open-house/ripe-ncc-open-house-dr… The session saw statements from our Executive Board Chair and Treasurer, and presentations from our Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. These were followed by a Q&A with members. Please view the recording and if you have comments or opinions you'd like to share, please let us know so we can consider your input when drafting the final version of the plans for next year. And we ask that you register for the General Meeting taking place on 29 November, where there will be further presentations on our plans for next year among other items. The draft agenda and all supporting information is available from our GM pages: https://www.ripe.net/participate/meetings/gm/meetings/november-2023 Kind regards, Fergal Cunningham Head of Membership Engagement RIPE NCC

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