```json
{
    "title": "The end of DNS as we know it?",
    "url": "https://performancezen.com/2005/05/11/the-end-of-dns-as-we-know-it/",
    "datePublished": "2005-05-11",
    "dateModified": "2022-05-18",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "DNS has been a great hidden mystery to most people who use the Internet regularly. As a Web performance analyst, I see the effects of poorly deployed or improperly maintained…",
    "author": "spierzchala",
    "publisher": "Performance Zen"
}
```

# The end of DNS as we know it?

[http://flickr.com/photos/20375052@N00/55109059](http://flickr.com/photos/20375052@N00/55109059)DNS has been a great hidden mystery to most people who use the Internet regularly. As a Web performance analyst, I see the effects of poorly deployed or improperly maintained DNS services.

[Business](http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1060086,00.html) [2.0](http://gigaom.com/2005/05/11/the-dangers-of-a-stressed-out-overworked-dns/) brings this to the rest of you. While sounding a little apocalyptic, it does highlight a problem that those of us who work close to the ground know: DNS is inherently complex and fragile.

Complex in the sense that a single mis-step can bring down a site like Google, or prevent Comcast users from using the Internet (not just the Web). Complex in the sense that the software, even after being re-written from the ground up for [BIND 9](http://www.isc.org/), requires an incredible level of knowledge and expertise to configure and maintain correctly.

I run caching BIND servers at my home, because I know how easy it is for a DNS outage to take me off the Internet. But the level of knowledge needed to set up that service for 5 computers is incredible.

Services such as [UltraDNS](http://www.ultradns.com/) and [Akamai](http://www.akamai.com/) have made DNS management for large companies a core component of their service offerings. [Nominum](http://www.nominum.com/), home of Paul Mockapetris (father of BIND and DNS), sells a robust and scalable BIND replacement.

The question now is: what next? What could replace the DNS infrastructure? So far I haven't been hearing a lot of conversation about this, because without DNS, nothing will work.

DNS and name resolution using DNS are integrated into **EVERY** operating system from phones to supercomputers. So is the question not *what will replace DNS?*, but *what will replace BIND?*

Don't know....