Challenges Network Admins Face in Maritime Environments

During our training in Fort Myers, I had the pleasure of meeting Juan Mayorga from Ecuador. He had traveled there to participate in the URSCA course.

Juan is responsible for managing the network infrastructure aboard four cruise ships that operate between Guayaquil and the Galápagos Islands—a role that presents numerous technical challenges.
One of his most pressing difficulties is maintaining reliable network connectivity while at sea and on the islands, where logistical constraints make it nearly impossible to receive replacement hardware. His primary obstacle involves overcoming signal interference caused by metal barriers, which significantly impairs Wi-Fi coverage onboard.

Since the Galapagos is a Scuba diving adventure spot and I had just got back from Scuba diving in Curacao, you can imagine that we got sidetracked quite a bit!

We had a great week of training, including the UFSP, UWA and the URSCA.

Author: Eric Weber