State of the Cloud DNS Report July 2012
Table of Contents Click on any title in the contents table to link directly to that page. Overview Introduction... 3 Anycast vs. Unicast DNS... 3 Provider Overview & Current News... 4 Provider Market Share... 7 Technology Used... 9 DNS Features Health Checks - Failover...10 Health Checks - Load Balancing...10 Location Based Routing (Geo IP)... 11 Zone Based Routing (Anycast)... 11 DNSSEC...12 Pricing DNS Query Volume Pricing...13 Feature Pricing...14 DNS Propagation Latency...15 DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) Performance Analysis Overview...16 Service Availability...16 Synthetic DNS Response Time...17 End-user DNS Response Time...19 Ultra DNS...21 Dyn...23 Cotendo...25 AWS Route 53...27 easydns...29 DNS Made Easy...31 DNS Networks Ultra DNS...33 Dyn...34 Cotendo...35 AWS Route 53...36 easydns...37 DNS Made Easy...38
Overview Introduction The Domain Name System (DNS) is the method by which meaningful hostnames such as www.google.com are translated into physical IP addresses needed by computers to communicate; DNS is fundamental to the operation of the Internet. If an organization loses its DNS capabilities, their hostnames will be inaccessible to users even if the servers are functioning! Additionally, DNS can be a potential security threat if hacked and hostnames are redirected to unauthorized servers. Because of the mission critical nature of DNS, many organizations have elected to outsource their DNS needs to providers that can typically ensure better availability, improved security, and faster performance. Anycast vs. Unicast DNS At the network level, there are 2 methods of deploying DNS: Unicast and Anycast. Anycast DNS Unicast DNS On the other hand, IP Anycast DNS provides multiple routes that queries can travel to reach their intended destination there are a group of possible receivers, which are all identified by the same end destination address. Anycasting employs a one-to-one-tomany association; data is routed topologically to the nearest geographic node, which increases performance. Anycast DNS methodology also has the benefit of redundancy; if a DNS node goes down down, another can immediately take over and respond to queries for it. Anycasting replicates the same DNS data to multiple servers around the world, which also provides protection in the case of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. In terms of reliability, speed, and security, Anycast DNS is generally a better choice. Anycast DNS has significant advantages over Unicast DNS. With Unicast DNS, information is routed to a single network destination, which is identified by a unique address; inherently, this means there is only one path data can take to reach its intended destination. Unicast methodology employs a one-to-one relationship between the destination address and the network endpoint each destination address is only able to identify a single endpoint. If a Unicast DNS server goes down, name server resolution directed at it will be non-functional which may result in descreased performance and possibly service disruptions. DNS NEW YORK MIAMI DNS LONDON MADRID DNS NEW YORK DNS LONDON MADRID MIAMI 3
Overview Provider Overview & Recent News UltraDNS Overview Neustar has been in business since 1996 and serves the Internet, entertainment, telemarketing, marketing, and advertising industries. Neustar s DNS solution UltraDNS was born in 1999 in Brisbane, California and has been in business for over a decade; Neustar works with a variety of clients from small start-ups to large companies like Zappos. In 2011, Neustar earned $620.5 million in revenue, and had over 1,400 employees after the acquisitions of TARGUSInfo (On-Demand Audience Targeting and Analysis) and Evolving Systems (Numbering Solutions). UltraDNS is just one of many technology solutions Neustar provides for Enterprise s - Digital Marketing, Domain Name Registry, Web Performance Monitoring, DDoS Protection and IP Intelligence. Along with Enterprise Solutions, Neustar provides key solutions form Informations Services and Carrier Services. Recent News July 13th, 2012 NeuStar confirmed connectivity issues arising from a DDoS attack, which lasted a few hours affecting a small subset of their customers. 1 June 19th, 2012 SiteProtect, Neustar s DDoS mitigation service, added more than half a million domains to its list of protected sites during the first quarter of 2012. 2 June 11th, 2012 Neustar has been selected as the registry service provider for 358 new top-level domains (gtlds), including servicing.nyc under agreement with the city of New York. 3 1 http://www.neustar.biz/about-us/news-room/press-releases/2012/neustar-selected-as-registry-servicesprovider-for-358-top-level-domain-applications Dynamic Network Services (Dyn) Overview Dyn was originally founded as a free service by a couple of college students back in 1998 during the dot-com boom, and officially became a company on October 24th, 2001. Dyn s headquarters are located in Manchester, NH. Dyn has around 70 employees, and had annual revenue of $10.3 million in 2010. In addition to DNS, Dyn also provides Email delivery service, API integration, DNSSEC and IPv6 support, active failover, as well as traffic balancing and load management. Recent News June 27th, 2012 Dyn s co-founder and CTO Tom Daly has announced that he is shifting roles to become the company s Chief Scientist; Cory von Wallenstein will be transitioning from CPO to CTO. March 21st, 2012 Dyn injected a new PoP based in Warsaw, Poland into their Anycast IP network. The new PoP is collocated with PLIX DC, a carrier-neutral data center located in downtown Warsaw. 1 March 1st, 2012 Dyn announced the release of DynECT 5.0, the latest revision of their managed DNS platform. New features include Load Balancing, CDN Manager, and DTM Traffic Manager in one single location, as well as Advanced Traffic Management and Active Failover features. 2 1 http://dyn.com/warsaw-poland-joins-dyn-anycast-network-dns/ 2 http://dyn.com/dyn-unleashes-dynect-5-0-more-power-capabilities-managed-dns-greatness/ 4
Overview Provider Overview & Recent News Cotendo Overview Cotendo was founded in 2008, and is based in Sunnyvale, California with research and development in Netanya, Israel. Cotendo has 29 PoPs globally, about 350 paying customers, and a variety of partners such as China Net Center, AT&T, and Red Hat. In 2011, Cotendo raised $17 million from investors such as Juniper Networks, Citrix Systems, Benchmark Capital, Seqoia Capital, and Tenaya Capital. Cotendo provides managed DNS and content delivery network (CDN) services. Recent News June 15th, 2012 Akamai suffered a Denial of Service attack on their DNS servers, rendering high profile websites such as Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Microsoft inaccessible for over two hours. June 13th, 2012 Amadeus, a global travel and tourism company, has partnered with Akamai to improve worldwide performance of their web based services and applications. 1 April 26th, 2012 Akamai announced their Q1 results, revealing a 15 percent decline in net income, as well as approval for a $150 million extension of their share repurchasing program. Additionally, it has been announced that Akamai s CEO Paul Sagan will be leaving Akamai at the end of next year. 2 1 http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2012/press_061312.html 2 http://abcnews.go.com/technology/wirestory/akamai-technologies-q1-earnings-ceo-leaving-16215708 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Overview AWS Route 53 is part of Amazon s suite of cloud related services. Amazon was founded as an online bookstore in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, and the Amazon.com site launched in 1995. Amazon currently has 33,700 employees and earned $32.204 Billion dollars in revenue in 2010. It is speculated that AWS will be the first $1 billion cloud computing service. Recent News June 19th, 2012 Amazon has just added a new edge location for Route 53 and CloudFront in Sydney, Australia; this new addition is Amazon s 33rd PoP. June 14th, 2012 Amazon announced expanded free customer support for all AWS customers, reduced pricing on premium support plans, as well as new features including chat functionality and performance/security alerts. May 14th, 2012 Amazon CloudFront has added support for dynamic content and has improved integration with Route 53; AWS Route 53 can be used to map a CNAME to a CloudFront distribution. 1 March 21st, 2012 Route 53 has added Latency Based Routing (LBR) to their DNS service; LBR automatically routes requests from end-users to the region with the lowest latency. 2 1 http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/05/amazon-cloudfront-support-for-dynamic-content.html 2 http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2012/03/21/amazon-route-53-adds-latency-based-routing/ 5
Overview Provider Overview & Recent News easydns Overview easydns is a Canada-based, private, self funded company in business since 1998. easydns has over 110,000 domains in more than 100 countries around the world, and processes approximately a quarter-billion DNS queries every day. DNS Made Easy Overview DNS Made Easy launched in 2002 and is a subsidiary of Tiggee LLC. DNS Made Easy processes more than five billion queries daily. DNS Made Easy s parent company, Tiggee LLC was founded in 1999. DNS Made Easy offers a free 30 day trial of their services. Recent News May 22nd, 2012 easymail has been added to the easydns hosting service level, which provides: IMAP mail, 1 gig of storage, spam/virus filtering, and webmail access. 1 May 17th, 2012 easydns now offers MyPrivacy.net WHOIS control, which allows valid domain owners to protect their privacy by hiding contact information from WHOIS lookups. 2 May 10th, 2012 The Domain Plus package was just announced by easydns. In addition to domain registrar and transfer functionality, Domain Plus also includes DNS management, URL and email forwarding for $15/year. 3 May 2nd, 2012 easydns plans to upgrade their core database systems on May 6th; during the upgrade, the web interfaces at (www.easydns.com) and (web.easydns.com) will be unavailable. 4 1 http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/05/22/easymail-added-to-dns-hosting-service-level/ 2 http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/05/17/the-official-easydns-flip-flop-on-whois-privacy/ 3 http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/05/10/just-released-domainplus-everything-you-need-to-run-your-website-at-15-year/ 4 http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/02/13/ddos-detected-mitigation-in-progress/ Recent News June 30th, 2012 DNS Made Easy announced the completion of the first phase of expansion in their Dallas, Texas point of presence location. June 28th, 2012 DNS Made Easy introduced their release of ANAME records, an alternative to CNAME records. ANAME records provide additional benefits, such as the ability to load balance CNAME records. May 31st, 2012 DNS Made Easy announced the release of their new REST API 2.0, which adds many features that were previously only available via the control panel. 1 May 31st, 2012 DNS Made Easy announced their Q3 2012 network expansion plans, committing to progress forward with their IP anycast upgrade into the new quarter. 2 1 http://www.prweb.com/releases/dns/management/prweb9564929.htm 2 http://news.yahoo.com/dns-made-easy-releases-q3-2012-network-expansion-003225622.html 6
Overview Provider Market Share - July 31, 2012 To track market share, we mine the name servers for the Alexa top 10,000 sites monthly. Alexa tracks top sites based on number of visitors and traffic statistics and is generally seen as a reliable source for this data. The tables below provide market share snapshots for DNS providers based on our independent mining. We use two techniques to generate market share metrics - DNS hostname matching and class C IP matching. Non recursive query validations are used to verify the latter. Market share changes may be attributed to changes in the makeup of the Alexa top 10,000 sites or provider changes. Alexa Top 1,000 Sites Provider Rank Number of Sites 30-day Change Market Share % Akamai & Cotendo DNS 1 67 +7 6.7% UltraDNS 2 59 +4 5.9% Dyn Enterprise DNS 3 55 +3 5.5% DNS Made Easy 4 21-1 2.1% AWS Route 53 5 21 +3 2.1% Easy DNS 6 8 +1 0.8% Alexa Top 10,000 Sites Provider Rank Number of Sites 30-day Change Market Share % UltraDNS 1 403 +24 4.03% Dyn Enterprise DNS 2 319 +22 3.19% Akamai & Cotendo DNS 3 249-6 2.49% DNS Made Easy 3 249-1 2.49% AWS Route 53 4 235 +38 2.35% Easy DNS 5 85 +7 0.85% 7
Overview Marketshare Growth/Loss - July 31, 2012 Top 20 Provider Changes As part of our Alexa market share analysis, we also track Alexa top 10,000 sites that have changed DNS providers since the previous month s analysis. The following is a list of the top 20 websites (ordered by Alexa rank) that have changed providers in the past 30 days. Website Alexa Rank New Provider Previous Provider youporn.com 102 UltraDNS DNS Made Easy deviantart.com 131 Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS searchnu.com 137 Cotendo Advanced DNS GoDaddy DNS tripadvisor.com 256 Dyn Enterprise DNS Akamai DNS tripadvisor.com 256 UltraDNS twoo.com 409 Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS ilivid.com 428 Cotendo Advanced DNS GoDaddy DNS netlog.com 566 Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS who.is 606 AWS Route 53 Versign Managed DNS bitshare.com 757 namecheap:dns enom DNS ask.fm 918 AWS Route 53 ZoneEdit tripadvisor.co.uk 1345 Dyn Enterprise DNS Akamai DNS tripadvisor.co.uk 1345 UltraDNS getclicky.com 1681 DNS Made Easy Dyn Enterprise DNS urbanspoon.com 1757 Dyn Enterprise DNS AWS Route 53 kinox.to 2073 cloudns:dns DNS Made Easy mobile9.com 2105 Dyn Enterprise DNS SoftLayer DNS bandcamp.com 2198 AWS Route 53 Easy DNS shopstyle.com 2203 AWS Route 53 Akamai DNS trialpay.com 2250 AWS Route 53 Confirmed Provider Changes Because the makeup of the top Alexa sites changes frequently, the Alexa marketshare stats may not reflect actual site gains and losses. The following is a summary of confirmed Alexa top 10,000 site gains or losses grouped by each DNS provider for the past 30 days. Each of these represents actual sites that have been confirmed to have switched DNS delegation during this time period. Provider Gain/Loss % of Market Share AWS Route 53 +18 +7.66% Dyn Enterprise DNS +17 +5.33% UltraDNS +7 +1.74% Easy DNS 0 0% DNS Made Easy -1-0.4% Cotendo Advanced DNS -2-2.82% Akamai DNS -11-6.18% 8
Overview Technology Used DNS Software DNS Software is the respond to queries requesting a hostname be transferred to an IP address. DNS providers can utilize off-the-shelf or proprietary software. Off-the-shelf software has the advantage of established stability and performance, while proprietary software can oftentimes provide better security and provide a point of distinction for vendors. Provider UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns Software Type Proprietary Bind Proprietary djbdns Proprietary (Elite Resolution Platform) Bind Geo IP Database In order to implement Geo-Targeted, Location Based DNS, providers will typically license Geo IP technology from one of two major vendors: MaxMind or Neustar IP Intelligence. These databases allow DNS providers to determine the geographic location of DNS resolvers (which are generally in the same geographic location as end-users), and provide a custom geo-targeted response. The following table provides a breakdown of the Geo IP technology used by each provider that supports this feature (Note: Anycast Zone Based DNS does not require this technology). Provider Software Type UltraDNS Neustar IP Intelligence 1 Dyn Maxmind Cotendo Maxmind 2 Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns NA NA NA 1. Both UltraDNS and Neustar IP Intelligence are part of the same parent company, Neustar 2. Cotendo uses a custom patched version of the Maxmind database 9
DNS Features Health Checks - Failover Health Checks - Load Balancing DNS Failover resolves hostnames based on the availability of target hosts. Hosts are monitored for availability using ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) or more advanced methods such as verifying that a HTTP server is functioning. If the primary host fails health checks, DNS can be automatically reconfigured to resolve to a backup host; routing is automatically restored to the primary host when it regains availability. PRIMARY DNS FAILOVER Like DNS Failover, DNS Load Balancing monitors the status of DNS hosts. However, with Load Balancing there are no active and failover hosts instead, all hosts receive evenly (or weighted) distributed traffic (weighted traffic distribution is an optional capability of this feature). HOST 1 HOST 2 DNS HOST 3 UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns 10
DNS Features Location Based Routing (Geo IP) Zone Based Routing (Anycast) Location Based DNS allows a DNS record to resolve differently based on the user s location (or more specifically, the user s DNS resolver location). To accomplish this, the geographic location is determined using Geo IP technology like Neustar IP Intelligence or MaxMind. This location is then run through custom geographic DNS rules. For example, DNS could resolve to a server in Singapore for users in Asia and to a server in the US for all other users. CALIFORNIA DNS WASHINGTON,DC Anycast Zone Based DNS is functionally similar to Location Based DNS. However, the former uses Anycast zones instead of Geo IP technology. In practice, this limits the number of definable location based rules definable to the number of provider Anycast zones. For example, Dyn s Anycast Zone Based DNS (GSLB or CDN Manager) allows users to define up to 7 rules per hostname corresponding to each Dyn Anycast zone: US West, US Central, US East, EU West, EU Central, EU East and Asia. In this regard, Anycast Zone Based DNS is more restrictive than Geo Location Based DNS which may allow users to define rules based on individual states or even cities. Additionally, IP Anycast routing can be problematic in some areas like Asia resulting in incorrect responses (e.g. an Asia user may be routed to a US DNS server - and hence resolve to a US, not Asia rule). DNS UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns 1. Route53 provides a unique DNS routing feature called Latency Based Routing wherein users are directed to an AWS endpoint with the lowest latency (endpoint must be in one of the 7 AWS regions). 1 UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns 1 (7 Regions) (BETA, 4 Regions) 4 Regions) 1. Discontinued service in favor of more effective Directional (Location Based) services. 11
DNS Features DNSSEC DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is a specification for securing DNS information DNSSEC was designed to protect clients from forged DNS responses. All responses in DNSSEC are digitally signed; by checking the digital signature, a DNS client is able to verify the information is exactly the same as the information from the authoritative DNS server. The DNSSEC standard is backwards compatible with DNS, clients that do not support it are not affected adversely. Although more and more organizations are now rolling out DNSSEC on their name servers, the actual number of signed zones is still very low. DNS CLIENT PROVIDER or USER Provider Managed UltraDNS Dyn Cotendo Route 53 DNS Made Easy easydns User Managed Provider or User Managed DNSSEC Manual generation and management of necessary DNSSEC certificates and digital signatures can be very complex and cumbersome. Some providers simplify this by automating these tasks within their management interface. 12
Pricing (July, 2012) DNS pricing for some vendors is often a black box. While some providers provide public pricing and self sign-up, others require contact and negotiation with sales executives. In the case of the latter, pricing can flucuate greatly depending on purchase size, negotiating prowness, the time of the quarter, and other extraneous factors. The pricing matrix below provides a breakdown of estimated costs at various usage levels with each provider. To collect this information, we have independently researched and contacted vendors that do not disclose pricing publicly. DNS Query Volume Pricing Pricing Per Month Provider 1 million 10 million 100 million 1 billion 10 billion AWS Route 53 $0.50 $5 $50 $500 $2,750 UltraDNS $49.95 - $195 1 $865 - $1,200 2 $2200 - $3000 2 $5,125 2 $17,500 2 Cotendo Not offered 3 $500 $1,000 $5,000 $10,000 Dyn $60 4 $295 (10 QPS) $600 (40 QPS) $2250 (400 QPS) DNS Made Easy $2.50 5 $5 5 $218 7 $1520 7 $7,370 7 $5495 (4000 QPS) EasyDNS $9.95 6 $20 $200 8 $2,000 8 $20,000 8 = Available with publicly disclosed pricing and self signup (i.e. no sales process) 1. $49.95 pricing includes only US and EU DNS POPs 2. UltraDNS discounts query pricing by up to 50% when bundled with premium add-on features listed below. The lower prices provided here are based on such bundling. Additional discounting may be possible through direct negotiations 3. The lowest tier offered by Cotendo is 10 million queries/month 4. Dyn Enterprise DNS Lite - includes 1.2 million queries/month 5. Must pre-pay annually 6. Enterprise Plan - Pricing is for 5 million queries/mo 7. Based on $1500/yr corporate membership (included 50 million queries/month) + overages 8. Based on the Enterprise plan and published overage rate - discounts may be offered by contacting a sales rep 13
Pricing (May, 2012) Feature Pricing Each provider markets and prices the add-on features in this report slightly differently. In the matrix below, we ve attempted to provide comparable pricing for each provider and feature; footnotes are included where applicable. Pricing Per Month Provider Health Checks - Failover Health Checks - Load Balancing Location Based Routing (Geo IP) Zone Based Routing (Anycast) DNSSEC AWS Route 53 NA NA $0.25/million queries 10 NA NA UltraDNS $225 1 $563 2 NA $500 3 Included Cotendo $130 4 $130 4 NA Included NA Dyn $100 5 $100 4 $250-300 6 $250+ 11 Included DNS Made Easy $0.42 7 NA $55 8 NA NA EasyDNS Included 9 NA Included 9 NA Included = Available with publicly disclosed pricing and self signup (i.e. no sales process) 1. UltraDNS calls this feature Sitebacker. Pricing based on 10 million query bundled pricing (25% discount) with 2 monitored IPs. Each additional IP is $113/mo ($150 without bundle discount) up to 5, then $90 up to 10, then $68 over 10 2. UltraDNS calls this feature Traffic Controller. Pricing based on 10 million query bundled pricing (25% discount) with 3 monitored IPs. Each additional IP is $188/mo ($250 without bundle discount) 3. Pricing based on 10 million query bundled pricing (25% discount) with 5 geo balanced hosts or IPs. Each additional host/ip is $100/mo 4. Per hostname with up to 10 monitored IPs 5. Priced based on # of monitor samples per month, $3 per 1000 samples - pricing provided is based on 3 hosts, 1 monitoring node and 3 minute samples. Pricing reduces to $0.30/1000 for 10 million samples/month 6. Per hostname - $250 for name (A) records; $300 for CNAME records 7. Must pre-pay annually - the Business and Corporate plans include 3 and 10 failover hostnames respectively. Includes up to 5 monitored IPs using 2-4 minute health check intervals 8. Requires $60/yr business plan. $1500/yr Corporate plan includes 1 geo-targeted, Location Based hostname at no additional charge 9. Only 15 minute frequency health checks are supported 10. Surcharge for latency based routing - only AWS endpoints are supported. Query pricing reduced to $0.125/ million queries for volume above 1 billion queries/month 11. Exact pricing is unknown 14
DNS Propagation Latency (July, 2012) DNS propagation latency is the amount of time required for a DNS change to be pushed to global provider POPs. Measurements are provided for both primary and secondary DNS zones (where secondary DNS hosting is supported). The latency measurement provided is a median of measurements from 110 test nodes. Primary Zone Service Propagation Latency (secs) Standard Deviation DNS Made Easy 2.22 3.7 1292 AWS Route 53 7.86 4.47 860 Dyn Enterprise DNS 9.29 3.24 860 UltraDNS 22.1 11.12 823 Easy DNS 46.71 72.34 445 Number of Samples Secondary Zone Service Propagation Latency (secs) Standard Deviation Dyn Enterprise DNS 15.19 4.49 872 UltraDNS 74 30.86 868 Number of Samples 15
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) Performance Analysis Overview The performance analysis in this report is separated into 3 categories: service availability, synthetic response times, end-user DNS response times; this data is captured utilizing a combination of the CloudHarmony browser-based DNS test (http://cloudharmony.com/dnstest) and testing conducted using CloudHarmony s network of 110 globally deployed monitoring nodes. Service Availability The following table provides service availability metrics for the prior month, and year to date (YTD). The metrics are based on the percentage of successful authoritative (non-recursive) queries made to provider DNS servers. Our network of 110 global monitoring nodes test DNS provider nameservers every 5 minutes using a random Alexa top 1000 site with DNS delegated to those providers. To eliminate false positives, if during a single test interval a node experiences 2 or more failures with different providers (indicating a potential network issue with the monitoring node), that test is aborted and the results discarded. July, 2012 Service Availability of at least 1 nameserver Availability of all nameservers Cotendo Advanced DNS 100% 99.9985% Dyn Enterprise DNS 100% 99.9985% AWS Route 53 100% 99.9978% DNS Made Easy 100% 99.9919% Akamai DNS 100% 99.9913% UltraDNS 100% 99.9837% Easy DNS 99.9998% 99.9311% The tables below provide 2 availability metrics.the first metric represents the percentage of tests where at least 1 nameserver responded successfully to the monitoring nodes during each 5 minute check, and the second represents the same ratio for all nameservers (meaning all provider nameservers responded successfully). Most DNS clients support retry logic, and hence more emphasis should be placed on the first metric. Year to Date Service Availability of at least 1 nameserver Availability of all nameservers AWS Route 53 100% 99.998% UltraDNS 100% 99.985% Akamai DNS 100% 99.9838% Dyn Enterprise DNS 100% 99.9975% DNS Made Easy 99.9999% 99.9953% Easy DNS 99.9999% 99.9488% Cotendo Advanced DNS 99.9998% 99.9972% 16
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) Synthetic DNS Response Time We monitor sythetic DNS response times using a combination of dig (a DNS utility) and our network of 110 global monitoring nodes. The purpose of this testing is to measure the amount of time it takes for provider DNS servers to respond to queries from these nodes. These measurements are taken every 5 minutes from each monitoring node. During each test interval, multiple measurements are taken and the median, mean, min, max and standard deviation metrics are captured. The response times used in the graphs below are derived from the median values and aggregated into multiple geographic regions. North America: 57 Monitoring Nodes 200 150 US West US Central US East Canada Median Median DNS Lookup (ms) 100 50 0 DNS Made Easy Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS AWS Route 53 UltraDNS Easy DNS Akamai DNS 17
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) Synthetic DNS Response Time (continued) Europe: 28 Monitoring Nodes 200 Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Median 150 Median DNS Lookup (ms) 100 50 0 Cotendo Advanced DNS DNS Made Easy Dyn Enterprise DNS UltraDNS AWS Route 53 Easy DNS Akamai DNS Other Regions: 25 Monitoring Nodes 400 Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 300 Median DNS Lookup (ms) 200 100 0 Cotendo Advanced DNS Dyn Enterprise DNS UltraDNS AWS Route 53 Easy DNS DNS Made Easy Akamai DNS 18
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time To collect end-user DNS response time, we created a browser-based DNS test at: http://cloudharmony.com/dnstest. We allow users to run this test for free, and pay users to run it using Amazon s Mechanical Turk. This test is also run using javascript tags on a few high traffic websites. To deploy this test, we delegated DNS for a domain with each DNS provider, and configured a wildcard DNS name (A) record for each. The test alternates downloading a 5 byte javascript file using cached and uncached random hostnames. End-User DNS response time is calculated as the difference between these measurements. Multiple response time samples are taken during each end user test, and the median and standard deviation are captured. Outlier response times above 1 second are discarded. The response times used in the graphs below are derived from a 90th percentile of the median values aggregated into multiple geographic regions. The purpose of this section is to present DNS performance from an end-user s perspective. This differs from synthetic response times in that it incorporates a more holistic, realworld metric that includes both DNS query time and latency between actual users and DNS provider nameservers (including the entire recursive DNS chain). The end-user response time heatmaps provide global performance analysis for individual providers. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. North America 160 130 US West US Central US East Canada Median Median DNS Lookup (ms) 100 70 40 Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS DNS Made Easy UltraDNS AWS Route 53 Easy DNS 19
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time (continued) Europe 250 Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Median 200 Median DNS Lookup (ms) 150 100 50 Dyn Enterprise DNS Cotendo Advanced DNS DNS Made Easy Easy DNS AWS Route 53 UltraDNS Other Regions 700 Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 600 Median DNS Lookup (ms) 500 400 300 Dyn Enterprise DNS Easy DNS UltraDNS Cotendo Advanced DNS AWS Route 53 DNS Made Easy 20
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: UltraDNS This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 21
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: UltraDNS (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 800 600 400 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 200 0 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 241.129334 148 10036 4067 US West 148.330179 113 951 465 US Central 125.293103 86 638 428 US East 121.346301 111 1568 547 Canada 95.995828 81 719 178 Western Europe 151.412088 101 1456 546 Central Europe 183.479215 178 866 288 Eastern Europe 162.760377 126 530 293 Asia/APAC 387.730876 339 2523 1082 Oceania 636.080943 676 976 125 South America 367.606218 394 386 151 22
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: Dyn This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 23
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: Dyn (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 500 390 280 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 170 60 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 202.137213 117 9846 3773 US West 124.163265 92 980 492 US Central 114.555759 73 547 352 US East 112.424262 105 1525 544 Canada 77.586645 69 629 137 Western Europe 110.181322 78 1467 542 Central Europe 127.804668 100 814 261 Eastern Europe 111.050439 108 456 238 Asia/APAC 333.391683 314 2525 942 Oceania 468.996165 449 1043 116 South America 381.115385 397 390 155 24
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: Cotendo This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 25
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: Cotendo (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 500 380 260 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 140 20 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 215.67016 119 6297 769 US West 117.30888 78 518 113 US Central 77.888325 53 197 67 US East 109.175115 107 1085 108 Canada 75.319231 69 520 46 Western Europe 107.230853 78 914 98 Central Europe 149.609508 130 589 56 Eastern Europe 100.87234 109 282 73 Asia/APAC 362.989854 341 1577 187 Oceania 469.246502 443 929 29 South America 412.581673 411 251 28 26
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: AWS Route 53 This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 27
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: AWS Route 53 (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 600 450 300 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 150 0 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 249.951281 157 7964 2377 US West 157.668994 124 716 269 US Central 157.579853 115 407 233 US East 151.344275 132 1310 357 Canada 88.570978 77 634 109 Western Europe 155.393298 84 1134 313 Central Europe 244.667571 241 737 175 Eastern Europe 149.708108 94 370 168 Asia/APAC 390.865169 347 1958 608 Oceania 502.417219 458 906 79 South America 421.27707 465 314 92 28
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: easydns This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 29
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: easydns (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 600 450 300 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 150 0 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 242.243799 141 5886 454 US West 149.732739 117 449 56 US Central 107.137363 73 182 46 US East 115.990584 121 1062 73 Canada 95.33617 96 470 41 Western Europe 143.560641 97 874 50 Central Europe 150.811538 130 520 36 Eastern Europe 77.863636 63 264 57 Asia/APAC 415.527778 389 1440 83 Oceania 482.865854 396 902 10 South America 437.573123 437 253 20 30
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: DNS Made Easy This chart provides global performance analysis. Regions are color coded according to the average performance in that region. Green indicates faster and red slower DNS response times for users within those regions. 33 533 Average DNS Lookup (ms) 31
DNS Performance Analysis (July, 2012) End-User DNS Response Time: DNS Made Easy (continued) Performance Trending Median DNS Lookup (ms) 800 600 400 US West US Central US East Canada Western Europe Central Europe Eastern Europe Asia/APAC Oceania South America Median 200 0 May 2012 Jun 2012 Jul 2012 July 2012 Summary Table Region Mean Median Number of Tests Number Unique IPs Global 236.796777 131 7012 1440 US West 127.307301 95 589 164 US Central 113.635714 65 280 144 US East 113.338528 109 1155 212 Canada 77.047203 73 572 70 Western Europe 126.997107 83 1037 195 Central Europe 142.75387 120 646 101 Eastern Europe 110.565495 109 313 115 Asia/APAC 387.967175 372 1706 353 Oceania 593.665618 655 954 49 South America 388.894737 399 285 53 32
DNS Networks Ultra DNS Provider Network Neustar UltraDNS 16 POPs 6 Continents North America Palo Alto, CA San Jose, CA Miami, FL Chicago, IL New York, NY Dallas, TX Ashburn, VA South America Bogota, Columbia Africa Johannesburg, SA Asia Beijing, China Hong Kong Noida, India Australia Sydney Europe Luxembourg, Belgium London, England Amsterdam, Netherlands 33
DNS Networks Dyn Provider Network Dyn 17 POPs 4 Continents North America t Seattle, WA t Palo Alto, CA t Los Angeles, CA t Chicago, IL t Newark, NJ t New York, NY t Ashburn, VA t Miami, FL t Dallas, TX Europe t London, England t Amsterdam, Netherlands (2) t Frankfurt, Germany t Warsaw, Poland Asia t Tokyo, Japan t Hong Kong t Singapore Australia t Sydney Dyn is also working on deploying new POPs in South America, South Africa, India, and Warsaw, Poland. 34
DNS Networks Cotendo Provider Network Cotendo 29 POPs 6 Continents North America Seattle, WA San Jose, CA Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL New York, NY Dallas, TX Miami, FL Washington, DC Asia Beijing, China* Shanghai, China* Guangzhou, China (beta)* Chengdu, China (beta)* Tokyo, Japan Hong Kong Singapore Delhi, India South America Sao Paulo, Brazil Europe London, England Paris, France Frankfurt, Germany Amsterdam, Netherlands Madrid, Spain Moscow, Russia (beta)* Milan, Italy Stockholm, Sweden Australia Melbourne (beta) Sydney Middle East Tel-Aviv, Israel Doha, Qatar *Use of these DNS POPs is not available for all clients due to government regulations. Contact Cotendo for more information. 35
DNS Networks AWS Route 53 Provider Network Route 53 33 POPs 5 Continents North America Ashburn, VA (2) Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (2) Jacksonville, FL Los Angeles, CA (2) Miami, FL New York, NY (2) Newark, NJ Palo Alto, CA San Jose, CA Seattle, WA South Bend, IN St. Louis, MO South America Sao Paulo, Brazil Europe Amsterdam Dublin Frankfurt (2) London (2) Milan Paris (2) Stockholm Asia Hong Kong Osaka Tokyo Singapore (2) Australia Sydney 36
DNS Networks easydns Provider Network easydns 16 POPs 3 Continents North America Ashburn, VA Chicago, IL San Jose, CA Miami, FL Phoenix, AZ Seattle, WA Palo Alto, CA Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA Europe Amsterdam, Netherlands London, England Frankfurt, Germany Paris, France Asia Tokyo, Japan Hong Kong Singapore 37
DNS Networks DNS Made Easy Provider Network DNS Made Easy 12 POPs 3 Continents North America Los Angeles, CA San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Chicago, IL Dallas, TX Houston, TX New York, NY Reston, VA Ashburn, VA Miami, FL Europe London, England Frankfurt, Germany Asia Hong Kong 38