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DNS has been a hot topic recently when two large companies operating online went down due to DNS outages. No matter how big or small an online organization is, they all rely on DNS to operate online since it’s a core part of internet infrastructure. With recent attacks and outages, many are starting to realize that it’s important to have a reliable DNS network or two powering your internet infrastructure – aka DNS. DNS is the one core technology that’s involved in everything your business does online, yet it’s almost always overlooked. Odd, isn’t it? It’s really the most important thing next to keeping your domain names registered and the sad truth is many businesses don’t realize this until it’s too late….

Just ask Fonality and National Australian Bank just how important DNS is. Both companies had some major DNS outages in the last few weeks that took down a bulk of their customers access to their systems. Fonality customers couldn’t make calls via their VOIP services for several hours and Australian National Bank customers couldn’t use ATM’s, Mobile Internet banking, payment processing and call centers for almost 24 hours.

Outages like these not only damage the brand of the organization, but they can be very costly financially. Some of these financial losses will be from customer abandonment and opportunity lost with new customers, but the real cost is within the operation itself. Support call centers get inundated, (if customers can even reach them) and ops and marketing folks are running around trying to fix these issues and put out fires instead of working on other more important things. Depending on what domains are involved, a DNS failure can take everything offline and cripple all online operations – Not good.

To be fair, one of these DNS issues did come about from human error, but it goes to show you just how important DNS truly is to your online success. Investing in your internet operations is a good idea to prevent issues like these and outsourcing to a managed DNS provider (or two with Secondary DNS) is one of the best investments you can make for your business. Think of it as added job security and adding a little insurance to your online operations. Spending a little now can prevent spending a whole lot more down the road if and when you do have a DNS issue.