By Kate Gerry, Director of Networking, NetActuate
Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 20th anniversary of the Global Peering Forum (GPF) — a cornerstone event that gathers the people and organizations who represent the interconnected networks that make up the global internet. For two decades now, GPF has provided the space for ISPs, IXPs, CDNs, and network operators to meet, exchange ideas, and strengthen the global peering ecosystem.
This year was especially meaningful for me as a first-time Program Committee member. In the lead-up to the event, I worked with an incredible team to help review and shape the presentations that made up an interesting and informative four-day agenda.
The Rhythm of GPF
GPF has a unique cadence: mornings filled with technical talks and policy sessions, followed by lunch and an afternoon of tightly scheduled one-on-one meetings. The structure allows time to absorb technical and policy discussions, then immediately move into focused meetings.
Things kicked off Sunday evening with the First-Time Attendee Welcome Social, where newcomers had a chance to connect with each other and GPF leadership. It was great to see familiar faces and meet new ones.
On Monday, the sessions began with an insightful presentation from IX-Denver, highlighting the region’s internet history and growth. This was followed by the IXP and Network Peering Personals, a rapid-fire series of introductions between attendees. That evening, H5 hosted a social at Wynkoop Brewing Company, featuring pool tables and plenty of time to relax and reconnect.
Tuesday brought an interesting talk from Lee Howard of IPv4.Global who explored infrastructure strategy through the lens of the “Good, Fast, Cheap — Pick Two” model. He tied that to financial metrics like ROI and NPV, reinforcing the need to align technical decisions with business outcomes—whether that’s automation, security, or customer experience. That night’s social at the Downtown Aquarium was a hit, complete with mermaids and a sloth!
Wednesday wrapped with a thought-provoking session from Livio Morina, who detailed Italy’s piracy enforcement model. The government, under pressure from the Serie A Football League, deployed a system that allows rights holders to push blocklists directly to ISPs with little oversight or review. While technically functional, it raises real concerns around due process, abuse, and operational fallout. The volume of blocks—thousands of FQDNs and IPs in a day—highlighted just how far this approach can go when left unchecked.
NetActuate’s Role in a Connected Future
This year’s GPF made one thing clear–-our work continues to move closer to the intersection of policy, automation, and real-world impact. Whether we are evaluating cost-saving infrastructure or responding to content enforcement demands, we need to stay aware of what we are building, who it serves, and where it could go wrong.
As operators of one of the top-five largest networks in the world by number of peers, NetActuate plays a critical role in keeping the global internet resilient, secure, performant, and compliant. The conversations at GPF were a good reminder that our role as network operators goes beyond uptime. We are part of something larger now.
It’s amazing to see how much the internet has evolved over the last 20 years and I’m sure the next 20 will bring even greater levels of change. As we build for the future, we need to continue asking hard questions, and continue collaborating as an industry around solutions.
GPF provides a great forum for these critical conversations. Kudos to Lisa Paris and all the event organizers! We’ll see you at the next one.
