At OSHEAN, staying ahead of the curve in network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and cloud optimization is a top priority. To shed light on the biggest challenges and innovations in the industry, we sat down with our Sr. Network Architect, Jon Domen, for a quick “5 Questions” interview.
From securing routing data and protecting members from evolving cybersecurity threats to optimizing cloud strategies and preparing for the future of IT infrastructure, Jon shares his expert insights on how OSHEAN is driving innovation and supporting its members.
1. What are the biggest network infrastructure challenges facing OSHEAN’s member organizations today, and how is OSHEAN helping to address them?
Some of the biggest challenges our members face are infrastructure security threats. OSHEAN has long been evolving both our network’s security and our members’ offerings. One of the newest areas has been routing security. OSHEAN has taken steps to enhance the routing data we receive from carriers and the data we distribute to carriers. Utilizing IRR and RPKI, OSHEAN can ensure that stolen prefixes are blocked at the OSHEAN edge and that the routes OSHEAN advertises are true, clean routes.
Another area where we have addressed this is dynamic security feeds on our firewall platform. Members now can block traffic based on dynamic feeds such as the REN-ISAC feed which are updated automatically when prefixes are added or removed. Additionally, OSHEAN offers distributed denial of service protection to all it’s members at the OSHEAN core level to ensure members are protected and remain online.
2. Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving. What are some key strategies organizations should implement to protect their networks in 2025?
Organizations can implement several tools to combat cybersecurity threats as they evolve. When looking at network infrastructure, vulnerability scanning, and pen testing are two of the most effective ways to evaluate where potential holes might persist. Proper change controls and config monitoring are also great ways to operationally cover day-to-day changes which may appear in equipment. On the user side, a solid XDR solution will enable visibility into the vulnerabilities of users and their machines. User education on a variety of security-related topics, such as phishing, can be instrumental in preventing threats in normal day-to-day operations.
3. With the increasing demand for high-performance networking in education, healthcare, and government sectors, how is OSHEAN innovating to keep up with these needs?
OSHEAN has been working hard to increase the performance of our network to stay ahead of the needs of our members. Recently, we have made upgrades to Cisco’s NCS network to bring in 400g availability in our core segments. In concert with NEREN, we have also upgraded the NEREN multistate network to DWDM flex grid to support 400g, 800g, and eventually 1.6t.
4. Cloud adoption continues to grow, but many organizations still struggle with balancing on-premises and cloud-based solutions. What advice would you give to IT leaders making these decisions?
OSHEAN has been working with several members in their migration to the cloud. There are varying degrees from just starting with cloud to fully cloud. As organizations look at the potential of either moving or expanding into public cloud environments, one of the biggest things that must be examined is cost. Many industry misconceptions indicate that moving to the public cloud will be a budget saver for organizations. This can be true sometimes as organizations might trim excess waste capacity as part of their move. More times, however, the costs are either the same or more, so when organizations look to the next 1, 3, or 5 years, care should be taken to forecast those costs accurately.
Additionally, organizations should look at the whole cost in the estimates. For example, some organizations do not look at power or environmental savings when calculating the cost of moving to the cloud. Another key area to look at is backup and DR strategies.
Many people tend to feel a sense of security in cloud providers and could fail to plan for cloud failures and other issues. In planning for migrations, be sure to look to backup and replication between regions or providers to ensure you have coverage for when problems arise and cause outages.
Lastly, look to the required performance of applications. People have said that latency is the currency of the cloud. Be sure to understand the requirements of your applications because moving from Rhode Island to Ashburn for instance, will add 15ms or more to latency, for most applications, that will be fine however, for some, that will lead to a terrible user experience. OSHEAN has worked very hard to peer with all the major providers in major points across the country to provide the lowest latency and jitter possible. We also continue to monitor and adjust our peering over time to take advantage of new opportunities.
Looking ahead, what emerging technologies or trends do you think will have the biggest impact on networking and IT infrastructure in the next five years?
Looking ahead, I think the biggest themes coming in the next 5 years will revolve around security and performance. On the security front, I think we will see more end-to-end encryption requirements, including those at the link layer, such as MACSEC, which OSHEAN has already set up with AWS. On the performance front, I believe we will continue seeing more solutions to reduce latency and optimize flows to allow for the latency to cloud providers.