Cybersecurity company Surfshark has launched 100Gbps bandwidth servers to support faster and more stable Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections. VPNs are used to secure users’ connections by encrypting and routing their internet traffic through protected servers.
The change is happening due to several factors, according to Surfshark CTO Donatas Budvytis, including increased devices per household requiring higher network capacity to perform large software updates and ensure higher bitrates.
“With 10 times the headroom of 10Gbps, we can reduce congestion and maintain consistent speeds, even during high traffic spikes,” says Budvytis. “This is especially important as the demand for higher network capacity and the number of online devices per household continue to grow rapidly.
“Also, VPN services should not become a bottleneck and have to be prepared for future technologies like augmented reality glasses or any other virtual reality headsets, which will depend on real-time data streaming and fast connections.”
Surfshark says the new servers allow VPN technology to be future-proof and ready for the growing demand when the shift to higher-capacity hardware happens.
Increased bandwidth reduces the need for throttling or deprioritising traffic, allowing users to get closer to their maximum internet speeds more often. This remains the case when backing up large files to the cloud or downloading games.
“100Gbps hardware enables faster encryption on modern CPUs, more intelligent software paths, and improved load distribution,” says Budvytis. “This results in consistently high speeds, greater stability, and the necessary capacity to handle future bandwidth-intensive applications.”
Surfshark chose Amsterdam as the location for its servers because of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), which handles more than 14-trillion bits per second, making it one of the world’s largest internet exchanges by traffic volume.
This, according to the company, is roughly 1.75 terabytes of data every second, ~560,000 simultaneous 4K streams, equivalent to about 7.5-million people watching TikTok videos simultaneously, or around 63-million people playing Fortnite at once.