How to make a corporate DNS secured and failover?

DNS is usually not given much attention, but this system plays a crucial role for online business websites, online services, cloud connections, and applications. If DNS fails, end users will not be able to find you on the Internet.

Think about safety and availability

An organization with its own DNS to support online services should host DNS servers at multiple sites. Each should have at least two servers configured for high availability. This is usually done using a load balancer. In addition, DNS servers must be located in their own isolated zone. It is important to restrict Internet traffic to only those protocols that are required for DNS.

Protect DNS servers from DDoS attacks

DNS is one of the main goals of DDoS attacks. Organizations with their own DNS should take care of protection against this very common type of attack. They can subscribe to DDoS protection services provided by their Internet access providers, install special security devices, or use both. It is also reasonable to have spare capacity that is guaranteed to cope with sudden surges in requests as a result of DDoS attacks.

Carefully manage your DNS

Because DNS is critical for business, organizations must strictly regulate who has the right to do with DNS. Regardless of whether the organization uses the services of a provider or has its own DNS. If there are several DNS administrators in the company, each of them can be given strictly defined functions and given them access only to those zones and records that are necessary for its work.

Create a second DNS network for redundancy and resiliency

Regardless of whether the company uses the services of a provider of managed DNS services or its own DNS, it’s best to create a second DNS network for reliable system operation. This can be done in several ways: subscribe to a managed DNS service that will complement your own DNS, or vice versa, or use the services of two providers of managed DNS services. Note that having a secondary, or redundant, DNS does not mean that one network is working, and the other is in a state of readiness for operation. No, both networks must be active, otherwise one of them will fail if one of them fails.