Even if a single packet arrives out or order, the process is suspended until all the packets in the correct order have been received, and only then are they put together to form the data they originally represented (an image, for example). In simpler terms, every packet represents a link in the chain, and is properly transmitted at the source and validated at the destination. A “packet” is the smallest unit of information flowing in a network (or between networks), and there’s a well-defined method of constructing and verifying network packets (beyond the scope of this article, but if you’re feeling adventurous, here’s more). No matter what we’re doing - chatting, video streaming, gaming, surfing, buying stuff - it’s essentially an exchange of data packets between two computers (networks). If we want to get fancy, we can divide the network into layers as per the OSI model, but all said and done, we’re always, always dealing with TCP/IP protocols (warning, heavy reading ahead!), pings, routers, all of which have one goal in common - transmission of data packets.

A typical containerized, distributed modern web application (source: )īut I can’t help but smile at the thought that the fundamentals are still the same as they were in the 1970s.Īll we have is abstractions upon abstractions supported by hard, physical cables that form the network (okay, there are virtual networks are well, but you get the idea). What started as simple CGI scripts written in Perl has now bloomed into clustered deployments running fully automated on Kubernetes and other orchestration frameworks (sorry for the heavy jargon - I’m not making it up at all it’s just the way things are these days!). In many ways, the landscape for digital businesses has seen a revolution or two. Make sure you know what’s going on deep inside it. Your network is the backbone of your business operations.

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