If you own or administrate an online business, you know how vital DNS is for existing on the Internet. Of course, you can build your own DNS server, but having a Managed DNS brings really good advantages that you should consider.
What does Managed DNS mean?
Shortly, Managed DNS means the service offered for clients to use the DNS servers of a provider. Once you pick such a provider, its DNS servers (its infrastructure) will be available for you to manage all your DNS data (records) of your domain and make the domain available online.
Providers supply their clients with a friendly control panel to manage their DNS. From there, you can create, add, modify, or clear DNS records, DNS zones, PoPs, etc.
Advantages of using Managed DNS.
Cost.
Quality DNS providers own robust networks. Getting their service, you can access their whole infrastructure. So even an expensive plan for sure will be cheaper than creating your own DNS from zero.
Ease of use.
To administrate DNS is not an easy task. But it can get more or less complex. Managed DNS gets in charge of routine tasks for you so you can focus on the essential ones. From the beginning, not being the one setting up all your DNS servers is a relief.
Easy scalability, up and down.
You look for constant growth, more traffic every day. But are you ready to handle this? With a Managed DNS service, you can expand or reduce your resources (speed, security, POPs, etc.) without badly compromising your budget. There are different plans to satisfy different websites’ needs and sizes. And you can add or cancel features based on your performance and real growth.
Add as many PoPs as you need.
Having different points of presence (PoPs) is absolutely convenient, especially for international websites. Managed DNS providers offer you many servers around the world for saving your website’s DNS records and choosing those that are closer to your market.
Whenever you require a PoP, you can easily add it.
Gain redundancy.
Redundancy is the way for websites to be constantly available. If your DNS records are saved only in a Primary Authoritative server, and it fails or suffers an attack, your site won’t be available. Managed DNS is the easiest way to add servers wherever you need them. While adding PoPs, automatically, you gain redundancy for your business.
Get higher uptime.
Downtime means the time your website is not accessible for clients. And that generates angry clients and losses for your pocket. Again, saving your site’s DNS records in a single Primary Authoritative server is possible but risky. If it goes down, there’s no alternative for the site to be accessed by clients. If you have copies of your DNS records in more than one DNS server, you increase your business’s uptime. One or even several servers on a network could be shut down due to a violent cyber attack, but not all of them.
Extra security.
Threats on the Internet are many. Therefore there’s no single measure to be 100% safe, but a combination of them. Managed DNS supplies you servers enough to balance your traffic load, DNS-protected servers with the technology for analyzing and filtering suspicious traffic, and more. Such resources can be considered in your strategy to strengthen your defenses.
Recommended article: DNSSEC – Definition
Conclusion.
To use a quality Managed DNS service is a good investment. Analyze the needs of your website, costs, and give it a try!