What Irish Network Operators Group does

Irish Network Operators Group (iNOG) is a Dublin-based community of practice, founded in August 2015, that runs regular meetup events for network engineers, SREs, and related technical professionals. Events follow a standardized format consisting of Lightning Talks (15 minutes) and a Thunder Talk (25-30 minutes) covering topics such as network automation, IPv6, BGP, cloud networking, streaming telemetry, Segment Routing, monitoring, and SRE practices. Operated entirely by volunteers under a Program Committee that screens speaker proposals, iNOG is not registered as a charity, non-profit, or designated activity group and instead relies on voluntary donations processed via Tito (Magic Tickets) and PayPal through Defensible Limited (CRO 610070, VAT IE3490731JH) to cover modest operational costs.

The community is hosted across Slack for online discussion, a YouTube channel (UCBl3zIF_JJZd1iOjvU1ItZw) for permanent video archives of all talks, a Meetup group for RSVPs, a mailing list for announcements, and Twitter (@inognet) for real-time updates. Approximately 15 major events have been held across the iNOG::1 through iNOG::15v series, including in-person meetups at Google, Facebook/Meta, Amazon/AWS, Workday, Cisco (via DogPatch Labs), Arista Networks, Indeed, Riot Games, Intercom, Zendesk, and DoSpace, plus fully virtual events held via Zoom and Jitsi Meet during COVID-19.

iNOG has no commercial revenue model, no customers in the conventional sense (venue hosts such as Google and Workday are sponsors rather than paying buyers), and operates with strict non-commercial boundaries including a ban on sales pitches and recruitment at events. There are no funding rounds, no equity structure, no management team, no M&A activity, no patents, and no registered employees in the input data; the cited 501-1000 headcount appears to reflect volunteer/community participation rather than payroll. Attendance per event has ranged from 12 to nearly 100 in person, with each event requiring roughly 50 hours of unpaid planning, testing, video editing, and design work.

Name

Irish Network Operators Group

Legal name

Irish Network Operators Group

Website

https://inog.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Irish Network Operators Group (iNOG) is a Dublin-based, volunteer-run community of practice founded in 2015 that hosts regular meetup events for network engineers and SREs featuring Lightning and Thunder talks on network automation, IPv6, BGP, and cloud networking.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Community / Network Engineering Events

NAICS

Business Associations (813910)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Association & Society Conference Management (Nonprofit, Professional Bodies) (THAHACAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Virtual, Hybrid & Livestream Event Coordination (HSACAAAO), Meeting & Conference Planning & Coordination (HSACADAA)

Keywords

• Network engineering community
• Network operators meetups
• Technical conference events
• Professional networking community
• Open source networking

Headquarters

HQ city

Dublin

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations: iNOG has no commercial revenue. The organization relies on voluntary donations to cover operational costs including swag, stickers, hosting, SaaS subscriptions, meetings, planning, food for volunteers, and enabling organizers to continue contributing professional time. Donations are processed via Tito (Magic Tickets) and PayPal through Defensible Limited.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Irish Network Operators Group (iNOG) organizes free, community-run meetup events for network engineers, SREs, and related technical professionals in Ireland, featuring Lightning Talks (15 minutes) and Thunder Talks (30 minutes) on network automation, IPv6, BGP, cloud networking, SRE, streaming telemetry, and related topics. Events are hosted in-person at Dublin tech company venues and virtually via Zoom/YouTube Live, with all talks professionally recorded and published on a YouTube archive. The community operates online via Slack, an announcements mailing list, and a Meetup Group, and is sustained entirely by voluntary donations processed via Tito and PayPal.

Product overview

Irish Network Operators Group (iNOG) is a community-focused organization, not a software product company. It operates a community of practice around network engineering through regular meetup events. The core offering consists of iNOG meetup events featuring Lightning Talks (15-minute sessions) and Thunder Talks (30-minute sessions) from industry professionals. The community platform provides Slack-based online communication, a YouTube video archive of past presentations, and mailing list announcements. The organization hosts approximately 6-8 events per year in Dublin venues, with events since 2020 held virtually. Events cover topics including network automation, IPv6, cloud networking, SRE practices, streaming telemetry, and network monitoring. The community is open to all skill levels and emphasizes non-commercial, technically-focused content.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• iNOG Meetup Events Free community meetup events (approximately 6-8 times per year) bringing together network engineers, SREs, and related technical professionals for knowledge sharing, talks, and community building. Events feature Lightning Talks (15 minutes) and Thunder Talks (30 minutes) from industry speakers, plus social networking sessions. Events are hosted in-person at Dublin tech company venues (Google, Facebook, Workday, Arista, Cisco, Indeed, Riot Games, etc.) and virtually since 2020.
• iNOG Community Platform (Slack + Mailing List) Online community infrastructure for network engineering professionals, including a Slack workspace for day-to-day discussion and announcements, and an announcements mailing list for event notification. Provides continuous engagement between in-person and virtual events.
• iNOG Video Archive (YouTube Channel) Freely accessible YouTube channel containing professionally recorded presentations from all iNOG events, providing on-demand access to network engineering content for global audiences unable to attend events in person.

Named customers12 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• DoSpaceminorOthers · 11 August 2015Original venue host for iNOG::1 meetup in August 2015. Community coworking and event space in Dublin that provided the initial venue for the group's founding event.
• HEAnetcoreTechnology or IntegrationIrish national research and education network providing essential AV equipment (camera) for video recording at events. HEAnet staff including Brian Nisbet and Donal Cunningham have contributed as speakers and volunteers. Critical infrastructure partner enabling professional video production of events.
• Defensible LimitedcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerFinancial processing partner that handles donations on behalf of iNOG. CRO: 610070, VAT: IE3490731JH. iNOG is not yet registered as a charity, non-profit, or designated activity group, so donations are facilitated through this entity.
• DogPatch LabsminorOthersCoworking and event space in Dublin that has hosted multiple iNOG events, including iNOG::12 sponsored by Cisco.
• RIPE NCCminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional Internet Registry that has collaborated on events including the RIPE NCC Network Operator Tools hackathon co-hosted with iNOG in June 2018 at DoSpace. Speakers from RIPE NCC have presented at multiple iNOG events.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force): The IETF is the global standards body for internet protocols and organizes meetings that attract the same network-engineering audience as iNOG. It overlaps with iNOG on topic coverage (IPv6, BGP, SDN) but operates at standards-setting scale, not as a local community meetup.
• RIPE NCC: RIPE NCC is the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. It is a broader incumbent in the same ecosystem that has presented at and co-hosted events with iNOG, but operates at institutional scale and is not a community volunteer-run meetup.

Direct peers

• AUSNOG (Australian Network Operators' Group): AUSNOG is the Australian NOG that organizes community meetings for network operators. Directly comparable to iNOG as a country-level operator community with a similar non-commercial format and content library.
• SANOG (South Asian Network Operators Group): SANOG is a regional NOG serving South Asia with periodic meetings and workshops for network operators. Directly comparable as a regional NOG using a similar meeting and content-sharing model.
• NZNOG (New Zealand Network Operators Group): NZNOG is the New Zealand NOG running community meetings for network operators. Directly comparable to iNOG as a small-market, English-speaking, volunteer-run operator community.
• NANOG (North American Network Operators Group): NANOG is the canonical North American NOG that hosts conferences and hackathons for network operators. It is the closest direct functional analog to iNOG, sharing the NOG brand, the Lightning Talk/operator-focused format, and the vendor-neutral community ethos, though at a much larger scale.
• UKNOF (UK Network Operators' Forum): UKNOF is a UK-based community of network operators that runs free, vendor-neutral meetings similar to iNOG. It is the most directly comparable European NOG peer, serving a neighboring English-speaking market with the same professional-association, donation-funded model.
• FRNOG (French Network Operators' Group): FRNOG is the French NOG, organizing community events for network operators across France. Directly comparable to iNOG in that it is a country-level volunteer-run operator community, though serving a different geography.
• NLNOG (Dutch Network Operators Group): NLNOG is the Netherlands NOG, hosting community-driven meetings for network operators. It mirrors iNOG's small-country, volunteer-run, free-event model and is one of the template organizations referenced in the European NOG ecosystem.
• DENOG (German Network Operators Group): DENOG is the German NOG running regular free community meetups for network operators. Comparable to iNOG in mission, format, and non-commercial positioning, but operating at larger scale within Germany.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/inognet
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCBl3zIF_JJZd1iOjvU1ItZw
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inog

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Irish Network Operators Group