1. LARGE REGISTRY CHALLENGES: LESSONS LEARNED FROM .COM/.NET
VeriSign
Bart Mackay
April 2005

2. VeriSign Journey
Network Solutions enters into agreement to manage the .com/.net/.org/.gov/.edu etc. extensions
Prevailing views did not anticipate the explosion of the DNS
No charge to fee based registration: Major Uproar
Registrations begin to grow, and then explode in 1997
Explosion in registration numbers, particularly in .COM runs through Q , from 5 million in Q to more than 27 million in Q , a period of 2 years

3. Growth of .com and .net
Nameservers act as the routers of the internet by providing IP addresses (i.e ) for machines connected to the internet based on the name of the machine (i.e.
Every domain has at least one nameserver to route queries to that domain’s content servers (web server, server, etc.)
Nameservers do not need to be in the same TLD as the domains they route, so many users designate nameservers to be .Net because of .Net’s networking history

4. DNS Query Volume Handled by VeriSign
Current Daily Volume: 7.5B – 13B/day; 15B+ peak
Average Daily DNS Traffic by Quarter

5. Global Infrastructure

6. Some Important Lessons
Evolution to professional management: Some can do it, some can’t
-Continuous strategic planning; constantly questioning how to do things better
-Close coordination of efforts between technical staff, and financial and business operations
-One weak link can be the downfall of the entire organization. Very little room for error.
Capital Reserves are KING – Estimate Needed Cash Reserves Then x2
Ensuring 100% availability, maintaining response times measured in fractions of milliseconds, ensuring capacity to handle DoS attacks and other events that burden the infrastructure, providing highest security possible in capacity, evolution with technological developments all require capital.
Customers, end users, governments and others in the internet community expect the same performance of a registry with millions of registrations as one with thousands.
IPv6, Real-time zone file updates, personalized attention and trouble-shooting, etc. Expect you to have it all, and the resources to make it happen regardless of strain caused by growth