Gaurab Raj Upadhaya
Nominee details
Title: Mr
Name: Gaurab Raj Upadhaya
Position: Director - International Networking
Organization: Limelight Networks (LLNW)
Biographical info: Gaurab Raj Upadhaya is currently holding APNIC EC Position. He is a native of Nepal, and resident of Singapore. He has been active in the Internet community for more than twelve years. Presently employed by Limelight Networks (LLNW) as Network Architect on their backbone engineering team, Gaurab supports Limelight's high speed backbone in Asia, Europe and North America. Gaurab previously worked for Packet Clearing House (PCH) as Senior Internet Analyst (2002-2010) and ran PCH's global anycast DNS platform, providing resilient domain name service for more than 100 top level domains from more than sixty Internet exchange points around the world.
Gaurab has a long record of volunteerism and commitment to the Asia Pacific Internet Community. He has served on the Asia-Pacific Internet Association (APIA) Board of Directors since 2004, and as Chair from 2006 through 2009. He has served on the APRICOT Program Committee continuously since 2004, and as Chair from 2007 to 2009. Additionally, in 2003 he was the founder of the South Asian Network Operators Group (SANOG), the regional network operators' forum that has trained hundreds of network engineers and brought the Internet community together in the South Asian Region with seventeen successful meetings to date. In addition, Gaurab played a role in the formation of the Middle East NOG (MENOG) and has served on its coordination committee.
Since 2007, he has served the APNIC community as the chair of the APNIC Internet Exchange Special Interest Group (IX-SIG). In 2010 he was elected as the chair of the APNIC Policy SIG. He also serves on the APNIC meeting Program Committee.
Gaurab is one of the 14 global Trusted Community Representatives who cryptographically sign the root of the domain name system in ICANN Root DNSSEC Key ceremonies.
In 2001, Gaurab was the founder of the Nepal Internet Exchange (NPIX), the first IX in the South-Asian region, and still serves as its CEO, pro-bono. In 2007, he worked together with local colleagues to build the Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN) and continues to serve as its Technical Director. This role has brought him close to various NRENs in the region and increased his understanding of their role in education and on the Internet.
During his career, he has spoken and presented at INET, APRICOT, SANOG, APNIC, NZNOG, MENOG, AUSNOG, PHNOG, JANOG, AfNOG, NANOG, ICANN conferences as well as RIPE and LINX Meetings.
Motivation for nomination: I have known Gaurab Raj Upadhaya since 2003, when he first came to Dhaka to encourage us to setup the Bangladesh Internet Exchange (BDIX). Since then, I have had the pleasure of working with him many times. Together we built the BDIX, and he helped Bangladesh's ISPs to learn and use BGP routing. He founded SANOG, one of the best things to happen in our region. SANOG has given our community a regular regional meeting place with high level workshops, APNIC participation, and international speakers. He has done countless workshops on IXPs, routing, resource allocation policies, and shared his network operations experiences with us.
I have observed Gaurab's contribution to the Internet Industry in South Asia and internationally, and given his understanding of the operational reality and policy concerns facing operators, governments, regulators about IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 adoption, He is presently serving as APNIC EC and I believe he is one of the very best candidate who should continue. His rare combination of technical and people skills will enable him to continue to valuably serve the community in our region in this very important role.
Nominee's statement: I have been re-nominated for the elections of the APNIC executive council after two years of service. I have accepted this nomination.
After many years being part of the APNIC community, being in the executive council gives me a different perspective on the business of APNIC, and how it effects the members.
Providers in APNIC region are working on deploying IPv6, and reducing the use of IPv4. This will create an period when there might be bumps of rapid growth of Internet in the region. At the same time, issues relating to Internet Governance has kept the internet community abuzz in recent years. As the regional internet registry for the region, as well as flag bearer of the local Internet community in International forums, APNIC will have an role to play.
At the same time, the unpredictable nature of future IPv4 markets, slow IPv6 deployment puts APNIC in a situation where the long term stability is very important. APNIC needs to continue provide the critical infrastructure for supporting the growth of Internet in the region.
Two years on the Executive Council has given me a better understanding of these issues, and I hope to continue serving on behalf of the community and ensure that we have an excellent regional internet registry in APNIC.
