At 12:14 AM 16-01-08 +1300, jamie baddeley wrote: Yes, but that would require them to run a DNS server at each of their 4 locations. They do not want to run their own DNS. They want it outsourced. Thanks, -Hank

Thought about anycasting? Broad as a barn door, but if you add health checking of the services and integrate that into what your DC router announces you get closer to what you want.

jamie

On Tue, 2008-01-15 at 12:55 +0200, Hank Nussbacher wrote:

...

I am looking for a commercial DNS service that provides geo-directionality. Suppose I have 4 data centers scattered thruout the world and want users to hit the closest data center based on proximity checks (pings, TTLs, latency, load, etc.). I know one can "roll their own", using various geo-locational data from companies like Maxmind. I am *not* interested in that. I am *not* interested in applicances like the Cisco ACE GSS 4400 either (that do this as well): http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/contnetw/ps4162/

What I am looking for is a commercial DNS service.

Is the Akamai Edgescape service the closest to what I want: http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/products/edgescape.html Is anyone using it? Can you recommend it?

Another service I know about is the Ultradns (now Neustar) Directional DNS: http://www.neustarultraservices.biz/solutions/directionaldns.html But this service is based on statically defined IP responses at each of their 14 sites so there is no proximity checking done.

Thanks, Hank