Gaurab Raj Upadhaya

Nominee details

Biographical info

Gaurab Raj Upadhaya is a native of Nepal. He has been active in the Internet community for more than a decade. Currently employed by Limelight Networks (LLNW) as Director of Network Strategy and Interconnection, Gaurab manages network capacity, expansion and interconnection. 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 served on the Asia-Pacific Internet Association (APIA) Board of Directors from 2004 to 2014, 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.

Between 2007 and 2011, 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, and subsequently was elected to the APNIC Executive Council in 2011. In 2016, he was elected to the position of EC Chair.

Gaurab is one of the 14 global Trusted Community Representatives who oversee the process of cryptographically signing 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 Chairman, 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, SGNOG, MYNOG, BDNOG, AfNOG, NANOG, ICANN conferences as well as RIPE and LINX Meetings.

Nominee's statement

I am Gaurab Raj Upadhaya, current Chair of the EC. In my day job, I am Director of Network Strategy & Interconnection at Limelight Networks, - AS22822.

I was re-nominated to the APNIC Executive Council (EC) election. I accepted the nomination and am now looking for support from the Asian Internet community for their votes.

Most of you know that I have been a regular attendee at APNIC members meetings since 2002. This is the 30th Meeting I am attending, so for about fifteen years. In the last decade and half of attendance, I have served as a speaker, policy proposer, BoF organizer, IX-SIG Chair, Chair of Policy SIG and since 2011 as a member of the APNIC EC.

The internet is in interesting times. There are both technical and policy issues that concern us. The conclusion of the IANA transition process actually creates a bigger responsibility for APNIC to act as an overseer of the PTI, in close co-operation with the other RIRs. On the technical side, the next wave of Internet connected devices are going to be through the Internet of Things. (IoT). Hopefully, more IoT results in more IPv6. I sincerely hope that the adoption of IPv6 will accelerate., and we can all play a role in it.

In my past few years on the Executive council, we’ve achieved few things. In fact, we went ahead and reduced fees last year, and the financials of the organizations continue to be good. The survey done last year showed that the membership has trust in the organization.

Without making this too long, I believe that with the engagement I have had with operators, regulators, R&E Networks, ccTLD operators in the AP region, I'll be able to contribute to this evolution of APNIC. As many of you know, I have taught workshops, done tutorials, chaired meetings, organized Peering Forums and supported different local NOGs. In all the works that I have done, I think I have tried to keep to the spirit of the Internet and hope that I can get the support to continue doing that by being on the APNIC EC.

Nominated by

Organization

Fiber@home Limited, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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. He also encouraged, helped and spoke at the inaugural BDNOG conference in 2014.

I have observed Gaurab's contribution to the Internet Industry in South Asia and internationally, and given his understanding of the operations, protocols and policy concerns facing operators, governments, regulators about interconnection, Internet growth and IPv6 adoption, I believe he would be an excellent candidate for the APNIC Executive Council. His past six years in the Executive council has been visible in and appreciated by all. His rare combination of technical and people skills will enable him to continue to valuably serve the community in our region in this new role.

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