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Is DNS Important?

Businesses, freelancers, web designers and creative agencies all register domains and then use their registrar's web interface to 'get the DNS working'. This is so often done without any real knowledge of DNS, what it does and what problems it can cause. With so many amateurs doing it the question 'Is DNS important' seems relevant.

It's 2023 and so to answer this question we popped it into ChatGPT. This is the response:

Yes, DNS (Domain Name System) is crucial to a modern business for several reasons. Here's why DNS is important:

  1. Domain Name Resolution: DNS is responsible for translating domain names (e.g. www.example.com) into their corresponding IP addresses. It allows users to access websites, email services, and other online resources using easy-to-remember domain names instead of complex numerical IP addresses. Reliable and efficient DNS resolution is fundamental for customers and clients to reach a business's online presence.
  2. Website Availability: DNS plays a vital role in ensuring that a business's website is accessible to users. Properly configured DNS records and infrastructure help direct incoming requests to the correct web servers, enabling visitors to access the website consistently and without interruptions. DNS availability and performance are critical factors in providing a seamless user experience.
  3. Email Delivery: DNS is essential for the delivery of email messages. DNS records like MX (mail exchange) specify the mail servers responsible for handling incoming emails for a domain. Accurate and up-to-date DNS configurations ensure that emails sent to a business's domain are correctly routed and delivered to the intended recipients.
  4. Service Discovery: DNS can be utilized for service discovery in modern business environments. With technologies like SRV (Service) records and DNS-based load balancing, businesses can use DNS to enable automatic discovery and load balancing of various services or resources across their infrastructure. This is especially relevant for distributed systems, cloud environments, or microservices architectures.
  5. Security and Control: DNS plays a crucial role in security measures like DNS-based blacklisting, whitelisting, and content filtering. It can help protect against malware, phishing attempts, and other malicious activities by blocking access to known malicious domains. Additionally, businesses can leverage DNS to implement advanced security features such as DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions) to ensure the integrity and authenticity of DNS responses.
  6. Scalability and Flexibility: DNS allows businesses to adapt and scale their online presence efficiently. It enables easy management of domain names, subdomains, and associated services, facilitating quick changes to DNS configurations as business needs evolve. This flexibility is particularly valuable for organizations that launch new products, expand into different markets, or rebrand their online identity.

Overall, DNS is a critical component of a modern business's online infrastructure. It underpins website availability, email delivery, service discovery, security measures, and scalability. Having a well-managed and reliable DNS infrastructure is essential to ensuring a smooth online experience for customers, clients, and employees interacting with the business's digital services.

That seems pretty conclusive, DNS is critical to modern business!

So why do so many businesses let unskilled and semi-skilled people handle this for them? The simple answer is because they don't know how important this stuff is. They also don't know how inexpensive it is to get a professional handling it for them. Our managed DNS service is just £24 per year! Just £2 per month to get access to engineers with 30 years of DNS experience.

Over the next few months we'll be publishing a sequence of articles dealing with the issues of DNS, including:

  1. Can just anyone update DNS?
  2. What happens if you corrupt your DNS zone?
  3. Who should manage your DNS?
  4. What happened when Amazon messed up their DNS?
  5. What question should I ask my provider to find out if they understand DNS?
  6. What answers about DNS should be a warning sign for my business?
  7. Should my business use DNSSEC?
  8. Does my web designer have the expertise to look after my DNS?
  9. What happens if the TTL is set incorrectly?

If you want to get your DNS on a professional footing, just get in touch.

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