VeriSign Launches Cloud-Based DNS Management Service

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VeriSign this week pushed out VeriSign Managed DNS, a new enterprise-class service that lets companies move their Domain Name System management infrastructure off internal servers to a cloud-based environment.

The idea is to give enterprises a cheap, secure way to keep their corporate websites, email and Web systems live and available without burdening the IT staff with the responsibility of managing and maintaining thousands of domains.

“Trends such as cloud computing, mobile workforce, and device proliferation are putting added stress on IT infrastructure and DNS management,” Ben Petro, senior vice president of VeriSign’s network intelligence and availability business unit, said in a statement. “Most organizations struggle to maintain high availability of these systems, yet when they look for outside support, they find a lack of proven service providers.”

According to IDG Research, nearly half of enterprise CIOs admit they are “primary troubled by uptime and unwilling to tolerate any disruption in service delivery.” As companies migrate to more cloud-based alternatives for applications, storage and services, DNS management becomes more complicated and opens the door for new security issues and challenges.

“Network-facing services have become more critical to almost all businesses, and businesses often forget that their Internet presence is only as available and secure as their DNS infrastructure,” Gartner’s Lydia Leong said in a statement. “Businesses can usually obtain improved DNS availability, performance, and security by outsourcing their DNS services.”

It’s the latest move by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) to focus on growing its core domain business. In May, the company sold off its Checkmark authentication unit to security software vendor Symantec for $1.28 billion in cash, paring down its business to concentrate on domains and related technologies.

Now, VeriSign is aiming to leverage its expertise in domain management and security to this new cloud-based service.

VeriSign Managed DNS will provide faster DNS response times, simplified DNS management and support services that will monitor customers’ Web servers to redirect DNS queries in the event of an outage or service disruption, the company said.

For the first three months of the service launch, VeriSign said it also will provide free, 24-hour phone support as customers migrate to the on-demand DNS management system.

Larry Barrett is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.