Nate Lindstrom of NS1 recently sat down with Enterprise Times to talk about DNS and intelligent traffic routing. The conversation took place at NS1’s office in San Francisco and covered the role of DNS, security and why companies need to take DNS more seriously.
Improving performance as we move to the cloud is critical. Users have become used to the speed of having apps and data local to them. When everything moves to the cloud, latency is a major challenge.
Part of this is about how the Internet functions, and part is choosing the best way to send users to the fastest location. Most companies rely on geo-targeting, which sends the user to the closest data centre to reduce latency. That sounds good, but it is not always the best solution.
One of the new approaches that Lindstrom mentions is RUM Steering. This stands for Real User Metric Steering. Lindstrom says that this is where companies constantly monitor the speed between their users and different data centres. This is because the time of day means traffic levels are low.
The impact of reliability and security on businesses was another area that Lindstrom touched upon. When it comes to reliability, Lindstrom said, “If no one can resolve your domain then they can’t get to the website. They cannot even send you an email to say that the website is down.
“Literally they just walk away. I’ve seen the numbers especially if you are in the retail business. People have a very low tolerance when it comes to waiting. Once they give up they will never come back.”
In terms of security, there are a lot of customers who just want to throw DNS over the fence and let someone else deal with it. Interestingly, savvy customers are now realising that they need to monitor any key piece of infrastructure. This means outsource it, but ensure you know what is going on.
When it comes to data sovereignty, Lindstrom says companies must go beyond geo-fencing through DNS. There is a need for application-layer controls and user access controls to ensure data protection is enforced.
These are just a few of the things that Lindstrom talked about in this podcast. To hear what else he said, listen online or download the podcast and play it on your device.
