05.17.2012 By Donavon Roberson
Myth Busters: The Truth About Unlimited Paid Time Off
Recently, Dyn added unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) as a new benefit for its employees. When trying something new, there are always misconceptions and unlimited PTO is no exception. Some may decide that it won’t be successful because employees will simply not show up for work and take advantage of the generosity. Others may be paralyzed by the word “unlimited” and not take enough time off.
No matter where one lands on this issue, there are some myths associated with the policy that should be addressed and answered in order to ensure everyone is on the same page. This is a growing trend among companies, so if you have been thinking about it, this will hopefully be some valuable insight into your planning.
Read More05.16.2012 By Kevin Donahue
Cooking With Kevin: Stories From Dyn’s Corporate Chef
Hello Dyn Nation! I wanted to introduce myself as I’m Dyn’s new corporate chef. I am excited to be a part of the team and to be able to bring a new aspect to our culture with my food and culinary background.
I am sure most of you are wondering how a professional chef comes to a technology company. Really, it is the same reason many of work here or any company: opportunity.
Read More05.15.2012 By Tyler Craig
Peas, Carrots & Tomatoes: Understanding The Enterprise DNS & Email Spectrum
Before I arrived in New Orleans for the 2012 Midsize Enterprise Summit East, I didn’t know what to expect as we had never been there before. I wondered if my colleagues and I (Director of Strategic Partners Brian Brady, Chief Product Officer Cory von Wallenstein and our Event Coordinator Lindsey Smart) would be able to justify the late nights in the French Quarter.
But as the second day of the summit rolled around, I found myself sitting in my room between meetings catching up on email. I was no longer thinking about the summit’s worth. Something else was on my mind.
Read More05.14.2012 By Kevin Gray
How To Access The API Within DynECT 5.0
Bob Dylan once sang, “The times…they are a’changin‘”. This is true of many things and Dyn is no exception.
If you’ve been a DynECT Managed DNS client the past few years, you may have noticed that your advanced services have changed in the way they are packaged and listed. This is done so that all of the functionality available within our portal is condensed in a more logical and easy to digest format.
For example, what used to be called Round Robin Load Balancing is simply Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) with every IP address in the global pool as it didn’t make sense for these two services to be shown differently within the portal. Also, Geo Traffic Management and Real Time Traffic Management (RTTM) are now sold in a single package so they are now represented that way in our managed portal.
This logical setup has a bit of a trickle down effect on our API access. Traffic Management now includes the formerly separate Load Balancing, CDN Manager and DTM Traffic Manager services, yet all three services still have separate API documentation. This is done because currently running services, enabled prior to the new service architecture, are still accessed by them.
Read More05.11.2012 By Mikel Steadman
Examining Volunteerism & A Most Precious Public Treasure
Recently, I was asked to volunteer my efforts on behalf of Dyn. The job? Become a phone receptionist for a live auction broadcast for New Hampshire Public Television (NHPTV), taking place at the University of New Hampshire.
NHPTV has been the Granite State’s only statewide locally owned and operated TV network for over 50 years, offering award-winning, locally focused programs and the best of PBS for television and online viewing. NHPTV has always been focused on community, education and enriching the lives of all people.
The spring auction was a live telethon dedicated to raising funds for the station — funds that typically go directly to “keeping the lights on.” Equipment, programming, events, utilities and the staff to keep those things managed are in most cases the bottom line reason for these types of public television fundraising events.
My wife Lisa and I find that we volunteer regularly. Usually, it is due to a need for leadership, representation or action for our local church, school board, NH Down Syndrome organizations or in our local community of Troy where we represent the Troy Recreation Committee and Samuel E. Paul War Memorial Park Commission.
Being a full time manager of a high-pace technology company, a dad of two boys under the age of two (one of which has Down Syndrome and has been in and out of Boston Children Hospital) and commuting three hours per day, one would safely assume I would have every right to say, “No, thank you.”
However in this instance and without hesitation, I said YES!
Read More05.09.2012 By Kyle York
The Untold Tales Of Dyn’s Jeremy Hitchcock & Tom Daly
How and when did your career trajectory really take shape? Think long and hard about that question in the context of your career path, current role and overall success. What were you doing when you were a 19-year-old college student? How about 16 and without a driver’s license?
My good friends, bosses and business partners CEO Jeremy Hitchcock and CTO Tom Daly were recently awarded the prestigious New Hampshire High Tech Council Entrepreneur of the Year award, recognizing leadership in the NH entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Both got to where they are by the tender age of ’round 30 because of two influential experiences that have continued to add to their still being written stories.
I’ve written about a lot of my personal tales on this blog. But following this amazing acknowledgment, I thought it was a good time to rehash Jeremy’s and Tom’s. They have no clue I’m doing this, so forgive me if I editorialize a bit.
Read More05.08.2012 By Matt Toy
Interop 2012: Explaining What ‘As A Service’ Means
On our website, we say: “Dyn is the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) leader, specializing in both DNS and email delivery for the enterprise client, small business and personal user.” It’s a perfectly accurate description of what we do here except we’re continually asked what “infrastructure-as-a-service” means.
The first few times I was confronted with this question, I didn’t think much of it and simply broke into my standard explanation. The problem was that it kept happening as it seems IaaS (pronounced eye-ass) isn’t as well known as we thought. Fair enough, so let’s dig into this whole “as-a-service” phenomenon.
Read More05.07.2012 By Chris Widner
Investing In The Future Through Interns
When you’re growing fast, it’s important to be thinking about the future and the most important part of that process is your people. The key to Dyn’s success has always been its people: finding them, growing them and growing with them.
This doesn’t apply only for full-time employees, but our interns as well. By recruiting star interns, we’ve been able to develop them into amazing talent who work here full-time.
In the five years I’ve been here, interns have played a big role in our success: a reason why we had our first ever Intern Day in March where we brought in 40 potential interns from colleges like WPI, SNHU, Northeastern, UNH Durham, UNH Manchester, Saint Anselm, Boston University and even a couple of folks up from Duke.
Read More05.03.2012 By Tom Daly
Recursive DNS, Round Trip Times, Delegations & DNS Performance
Usually on the Dyn blog, you’ll hear us talking about the technology behind our authoritative DNS infrastructure, the benefits of IP anycast routing, the scale of our global infrastructure and more.
Often ignored, but still a major part of the DNS system, is the recursive DNS infrastructure, traditionally deployed by ISPs to serve their customers.
One way to think of the two pieces of the DNS is that the authoritative DNS (ADNS) is the Internet telephone book (a directory of DNS hostnames mapping to IP addresses) and the recursive DNS (RDNS) is like directory assistance, helping you look up an entry in the authoritative DNS.
There are tons of recursive DNS servers all over the world. In fact, on April 1st, 2012, Dyn’s IP anycast network communicated with nearly 3.2MM unique recursive DNS servers around the world. Every ISP in the world runs them for their customers. Enterprises need to run them to support their internal networks and there are third-party DNS options such as Internet Guide running all over the world.
Read More05.02.2012 By Kyle York
Let’s Hit It: Breaking Down Dyn’s Event & Conference Strategy
“Let’s hit it.”
With that certain undeniable conviction, we entered the Email Evolution Conference’s networking event put on by Message Systems this past March.
“Follow my lead.”
These words rang true for Marketing Manager Josh Nason as he attended his first conference repping the Dyn brand. Director of Email Mike Veilleux was also outside the friendly confines of 150 Dow Street with VP of Worldwide Sales Josh Delisle and myself for the very first time. It was time to hustle and pull the value and ROI we needed out of the show.
Back in the day when the sales & marketing team was small, it was easier to ensure our efforts were integrated so we could make the most out of each show. With scaling, this has been one of my many challenges. It’s still entirely my responsibility, but not being in the flesh everywhere, I realize the need to better train and mentor our Dyn street team. There are few things I take more seriously than ensuring all of our staff genuinely embodies our brand.
With over 70 shows on the docket for 2012 and a dozen or so new employees traveling for Dyn for the first time, I thought it would be worthwhile to provide a summary of why events are such a huge part of our strategy. Outside of our people, travel and entertainment is the largest piece of the budget I maintain, so I’m a psycho when it comes to making serious noise and turning these disruptive efforts into both short term and long term revenue.
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