APRICOT 2024: Another Leap Forward for Thailand IX as the Leader of Neutral Internet Exchange in Thailand
On February 27th to March 1st, 2024, Thailand IX had a chance to participate in the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies 2024 (or APRICOT 2024) marking as the largest Internet and network-related conference in Asia Pacific region.
This year, the event was organized in Thailand at The Athenee Hotel Bangkok locating at the heart of Bangkok. Moreover, we were also one of the event’s sponsors, which also granted us an opportunity to promote our services in our own booth.
Today, we are going to deep dive into the event itself to see what it looks like, feels like, and find out the interesting activities within the event.
Exchanging Knowledges with Experts Across Asia Pacific
In the week-long conference, we attended the 29th meeting of the Asia Pacific Internet Exchange Association (APIX) on February 26th, 2024. This meeting was important for members since it hosted the steering committee’s election requiring the voting rights from every single member of the organization.
Additionally, the meeting was also a perfect place for us to have a conversation with the rest of members in several topics, including regulatory issues, network security, and privacy protection mechanism for network packets. As you can see, the meeting packed with interesting topics for the Internet exchange providers across the board.
Meanwhile, there were also several topics related to the networking. One of a good example is the Peering Forum, which discussed about the Internet Exchange services in several aspects. Topics from the session included remote peering, state of the Internet in Thailand, LAN security.
But, most importantly, there was an announcement about the host of the Peering Asia 6.0, which will be in Jakarta, Indonesia. The conference is going to happen on November 6th-7th, 2024.
There were also several topics within the conference outside the Internet exchange circle as well. The topics included ongoing transition from IPv4 to IPv6, applying AI and machine learning into network management, and policies from APNIC and related entities, like ICANN.
Meeting Participants in APRICOT 2024
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, Thailand IX participated the event as one of the sponsors. As a result, we had a chance to host our own booth within the conference. This time, we also had a co-host, which was our colleague, NT cyfence, a complete solution for enterprise IT solution from National Telecom PLC (or NT).
Surprisingly, our booth attracted a lot of participants. Giving us a good chance to introduce our services in the large audience, whether from Thailand or from abroad.
Furthermore, we also had a fantastic opportunity to introduce them through a session in the Peering Forum. During our presentation, we introduced our 3 connection facilities and our ever-growing peering members.
Speaking of peering members, it is worth mentioning that we will introduce the 2 latest members within April to May of this year. We know that you might be curious about them, but please stay tuned for more. Because you may be surprised to find out who they are, and we are incredibly stoked to welcome them on board!
Back to our presentation. We had great opportunities to introduce our services to such a large stage in Asia Pacific. As a result, we can collaborate with our existing and upcoming partners to connect their business in Thailand.
The Stage for Thailand IX to Shine
That wrapped up our experience in the conference as host country, and another stage for Thailand IX to take part in the largest conference in network-related conference in Asia Pacific as a sponsor. This also showcased our potential of Thailand IX as the No. 1 of neutral Internet exchange of Thailand.
As for APRICOT 2025, it is going to be happened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and organized by the ISP Association of Bangladesh, from February 18th to 27th, 2025. The conference will have 3 sections, which are:
- Training sessions on February 18th-20th, 2025.
- Meeting between members on February 22nd-23rd, 2025.
- Conference days on February 24th-27th, 2025.
Be sure to check out the official website of APRICOT for more detail about the event.