How important is geographic redundancy to your domain’s name server?

The geographic redundancy of a domain name server (DNS), also referred to as DNS geo-redundancy, forms part of a company’s continuity. In other words, if your company is serious about limiting any downtime and disruptions regarding your hosting, perhaps due to a power outage or other challenges, geo-redundancy will be a pressing matter to prioritise.

Not really sure what a DNS has to do with your domain name or hosting? Let’s take a few steps back to explain the relevance a little.

What is a domain name server (DNS)?

A domain name is a short name that humans can remember and relate to. However, computers and the internet talk in IP address lingo. A domain name server (DNS) is the system used to translate domain names into IP addresses. Whenever someone tries to access your website, the DNS of the company you host with will point them to the right address.

What does redundancy mean in web hosting?

The word redundancy in web hosting has nothing to do with the actual word ‘redundancy’ as in the English language, meaning “not useful or needed”. In fact, it means quite the opposite. Web hosting redundancy, means a proactive plan to prevent any system’s failure; an “always on” approach to your hosting in other words.

What is geo-redundancy?‘Bad’ things can happen. Power outages, or natural disasters, can cause data centres (where domain name servers are hosted) to experience downtime. DNS geo-redundancy means that a hosting company has had the foresight to implement multiple domain name servers in various other geographic locations, which will ensure that should one DNS fail, the system will failover (automatically switch over) to the next DNS location.

In other words, the DNS records will continue to work irrespective of the challenges a particular data centre may be experiencing, and your hosting won’t experience any downtime.

At Domains.co.za we realise that downtime can have a ripple effect on business productivity and customer satisfaction. That’s why we have four domain name servers hosted in various local and international geographical locations. Two of these are hosted in Johannesburg, one in Cape Town and the fourth in London. In offering DNS geo-redundancy to our hosting customers, we can ensure minimising any hosting-related disruption in any online business processes.

Learn more about Domains.co.za hosting here.