sdnog Update: Supporting Our Community

[sdnog at sdnog.sd]

Dear sdnog community,

Eid Adhaa Mubarak. We hope this message finds you and your loved ones 
safe. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of Sudan, and we 
continue to hope for peace and stability to return to our beloved 
country soon.

First, we apologise for the long silence. Like many of you, we have been 
adjusting to the difficult and uncertain realities we all continue to 
face. Initially, we believed that holding regular NOG events wouldn’t be 
feasible given the current circumstances. However, we’ve been working 
quietly behind the scenes to continue supporting our community in 
impactful ways.

Community Initiatives & Projects
We’re proud to announce the successful launch of our very own cloud 
infrastructure under the sdnog Free Hosting Project. With the generous 
support of INX-ZA and the .SD team, we’ve been able to offer hosting 
services to a wide range of critical institutions, including:
- Universities
- Hospitals
- Libraries
- Governmental institutions
- Charitable organisations

In addition, working with ZANOG, we’ve built a DNS Hosting Platform that 
allows organisations to easily manage and host their DNS zones and 
records online. This is part of our effort to improve digital resilience 
and accessibility in Sudan.
https://sdnog.sd/index.php/support
https://dnscontrol.sdnog.sd/login

To better handle service requests from the community and follow up more 
efficiently, we have also implemented a ticketing system. This will help 
us streamline support and ensure better response and tracking of all 
inquiries and needs.
https://sdnog.sd/index.php/support
https://support.sdnog.sd/

We’ve also upgraded the sdnog infrastructure, including a refreshed 
website and wiki, to provide easier access to knowledge and community 
resources.
https://sdnog.sd/
https://docs.sdnog.sd

We also extend our sincere thanks to the Global NOG Alliance, who have 
kindly offered to host services for our community and are currently 
supporting several Sudanese organisations.

Capacity Building & Regional Engagement
We’d like to express our deep gratitude to AFRINIC for offering 100% 
sponsorship for certification to the top 10 sdNOG participants who 
graduated from the "Zero to Certified IPv6 in 21 Days" challenge. We're 
happy to now have newly certified IPv6 engineers in our community. Read 
their testimonials on our website!

We’re also proud to have participated in AIS 2024, where Ms. Manhal 
Mohamed conducted a workshop on "Load Balancing Strategies: From Theory 
to Practice with HAProxy."  Many thanks to her for representing sdnog 
and sharing valuable technical knowledge.
https://docs.sdnog.sd/books/sdnog-workshops/page/haproxy-lab-setup-guide-multi-os-installation

Additionally, we collaborated with the Internet Society, ISOC Lebanon, 
and ISOC Sudan to organise a DNS/DNSSEC workshop. Special thanks to Mr. 
Mohamed Alhafez for leading this initiative and delivering excellent 
training.
https://docs.sdnog.sd/books/sdnog-workshops/page/isoc-chapters-collaboration-sudan-lebanon-dnsdnssec-workshop


Looking Ahead
We’re ready to do more.  We remain committed to supporting initiatives 
that strengthen our local and regional internet ecosystem.
As part of this commitment, we’re planning to revive our “Weekly 
Workshop” program—this time in a virtual format. We’ll be sharing more 
details in a separate email soon, and we’ll definitely need your help to 
make it a success. We can’t do this alone! :-)

If you need any help or support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to 
us:
https://sdnog.sd/index.php/support
We also welcome any ideas, comments, or suggestions you may have!

Final Words
Finally, we want to thank you, our community, for your strength, 
patience, and resilience. Together, we can rebuild and make our future 
better.

With gratitude,
Sara Alamin
sdnog Team