RIPE NCC Services Working Group Minutes RIPE 90
Wednesday, 14 May 2025 14:00 (UTC+1)
Chairs: Rob Evans, Stefan Wahl, János Zsakó
Scribe: Fergal Cunningham
Status: Draft
The recordings of the session are available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/programme/meeting-plan/ncc-services-wg/
The stenography transcripts are available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/steno/33/
1. Welcome, Admin
The presentation is available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/video/1626/
Rob Evans, RIPE NCC Services WG Co-Chair, welcomed attendees to the session and ran through the agenda. There were no changes to the agenda.
2. Registry Highlights
Hans Petter Holen, RIPE NCC Managing Director and CEO
The presentation is available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/video/1627/
Hans Petter Holen gave the highlights from the Registry in the RIPE NCC as presented in the RIPE NCC Annual Report 2024. After providing an overview of what the Registry does, he gave an update on membership and registry trends for 2024, including statistics on transfers to and from RIPE members. He talked about all the work the RIPE NCC is doing to ensure good accountability and transparency around the Registry.
Hans Petter then dived into the workload that is faced by Registry staff, and he highlighted the increased amount of work in 2024 due to the implementation of 2-factor authentication. On the other hand, he noted that there is good use of the chat functionality, which allows some issues to be solved before they become tickets. He also noted that the NPS and CES ratings for the RIPE NCC’s customer services is extraordinarily high.
Hans Petter also introduced Gabor de Wit, the new Chief Registry Officer for the RIPE NCC, to the RIPE community.
Rob Evans, RIPE NCC Services WG Co-Chair, asked if there were details on Inter-RIR transfers that might involve an entity in the ARIN region sending resources to the same entity in Europe. Hans Petter said there was a lot of data available and he said concrete examples could be provided on request.
Michele Neylon, Blacknight, asked how the RIPE NCC was able to find out cases of fraud because, as a member, he noted the importance for the Registry of having nonfraudulent members.
Hans Petter said it wasn’t advisable to alert people to the methods used to detect fraud as offenders would then use the information to avoid detection. He did say there were numerous situations where members needed to provide information to the RIPE NCC and this gave the opportunity to do checks, and he assured Michele that the RIPE NCC takes fraud very seriously.
3. Technology Highlights
Felipe Victolla Silveira, Chief Technology Officer, RIPE NCC
The presentation is available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/video/1628/
Felipe Victolla Silveira gave the highlights from the Technology area in 2024. He started by outlining the objectives the Technology division had at the start of 2024.
He talked about the challenges that the RIPE NCC had and eventually overcame in terms of the RIPE Atlas backend, especially in terms of storing data. He also covered what the RIPE NCC is doing to reduce its data centre presence. He then gave an overview of all the work that has been done to improve the information services at the RIPE NCC, especially RIS and RIPEstat.
Felipe then covered the Internet infrastructure area, talking about the many projects, such as SOC 2 Type I certification obtained for RPKI in 2024, that the RIPE NCC is doing to ensure the highest levels of compliance with industry standards and to secure the RIPE NCC’s core services, such as the RIPE Database.
He explained how the RIPE NCC is working to improve the resiliency and availability of DNS and K-root.
He then dived into the RIPE NCC’s cloud strategy, talking about the current strategy but also how it needs to evolve in light of geopolitical developments and consequent concerns from members and community. He talked about the business continuity plans at the RIPE NCC that would include exit strategies for the cloud, and he mentioned that some new migrations to the cloud would be halted, while in some cases on-premise infrastructure would be favoured instead of cloud services going forward.
Finally he talked about the Budget for Technology and efforts to ensure cost effectiveness.
Shane Kerr, IBM, asked why the SOC 2 Type I report was not published. Eleonora Petridou, Chief Information Security Officer at the RIPE NCC, said this was not public documentation but that it could be provided to individual members who were willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Randy Bush, IIJ, suggested that alongside service criticality, personal information should also be a key part of the consideration to pull back from using the cloud. Felipe said that this is what’s currently done, with confidential information stored on premise.
4. External Engagement and Community Highlights
Hisham Ibrahim, Chief Community Officer, RIPE NCC
The presentation is available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/video/1629/
Hisham Ibrahim gave an overview of all the work the RIPE NCC is doing to engage with members, community and other stakeholders in the Internet industry. He covered the RIPE NCC’s efforts in community building and member engagement, learning and development, initiatives to engage with governments and law enforcement, the events that the RIPE NCC runs to enable community members to come together, and changes to the RIPE Fellowship programme.
There were no questions.
5. Strategy Cycle 2027-2031
Hans Petter Holen, RIPE NCC CEO
The presentation is available at:
https://ripe90.ripe.net/archives/video/1630/
Hans Petter explained all the work that is ongoing to develop the RIPE NCC’s next five-year strategy. He explained the methodology that was being used to develop it and the process that the RIPE NCC is following, including how members and the community will be asked to participate. During his presentation he gave a summary of the PESTLE analysis that was carried out internally, which highlighted the various external factors that were likely to impact the RIPE NCC over the period 2027-2031.
Salam Yamout, Netflix, said there was a lot in the presentation to be pessimistic about, so she wanted to know what kept Hans Petter optimistic. Hans Petter recounted the early days of using the Internet to connect people and make the world a better place, and he said he thought this was still something that the Internet was able to do.
Brian Nisbet, HEANET, asked if there was a way to contact the RIPE NCC about strategy such as strategy@ripe.net, and Hans Petter said this address would be created and the RIPE NCC would also engage on strategy and individual services in the various RIPE working groups.
6. AOB
There was no other business to discuss. Rob thanked attendees and closed the session.