05.15.2012 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 More05.11.2012 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 More05.02.2012 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.
Read More05.01.2012 By Adam Coughlin
Answering Four Key Questions About Operation Ghost Click
DNS is in the news as the FBI will be shutting down Internet use for a large amount of U.S. based users this July, so we wanted to take a moment to bring some clarity to the situation especially if you’re one of the people that could be affected.
So what happened?
This all began a while back when six Estonians launched malware called “DNSChanger.” Basically, what this did was change your directory assistance server from a good one to a bad one. Domain Name Servers (DNS) get you to where you want to go on the Internet, even if you don’t realize you’re using them.
DNS is the Internet’s phone book. When you search for www.dyn.com, the DNS gets you to www.dyn.com, like when you call “Home” on your cell phone without having to dial 603-555-1234. However, this malware hijacked some computers’ DNS (technically their recursive DNS servers).
Most of the time those infected computers went to the right websites. But whenever the hackers wanted to, they could send you to a website of their choice, promoting fake and/or dangerous products. This is especially troubling when it comes to banking websites. You may think you’re going to your bank’s website but you’re instead going to a fake one that looks like your bank. As a result, you give access to your personal information to some very bad people.
Read More04.27.2012 By Jeremy Hitchcock
Why The Traditional Work/Life Balance Is A Lie
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I say something about work/life balance many times a month. It’s said during interviews, company meetings and also as a cautionary tale to people who are stretching themselves too thin.
The secret: it’s all a lie.
Read More04.25.2012 By Kyle York
European Vacation: Inside Dyn’s Booming New EMEA Office
Around this time last year, we opened an office in the UK and strongly committed our global IaaS company to the European market. We hired a seasoned Regional Director in Phil Akilade, began enhanced account management with all UK/EMEA customers, started hiring and established a strong trade show and sponsorship plan throughout the region.
It was reminiscent of when we started building our brand and U.S.-based sales team in 2009: grassroots, assertive and unique. I had high expectations when we expanded out for the first time, but witnessing it come to life has been one of the greater accomplishments of my career.
We still have a way to go, but the foundation is more than laid.
Read More04.16.2012 By Tom Daly
From Swinging A 48 Hour Hammer To A Bad News First Environment
With each phase of growth and especially over the past three years, shifts in Dyn’s tides occurred due to a variety of factors, many times related to the number of people we’ve hired and other times due to the physical geography of our office.
One of the monumental shifts I’ve noticed recently (and likely took too long to reflect upon and realize) is that it has become harder for our teams to relay onward bad news to each other as soon as it is realized. Examples of this kind of bad news: “the schedule is going to slip” or “the scope needs to be reduced” or “we’re not going to win the deal we thought we would”.
When I started at Dyn in 2001, we had just four employees and we all sat at a bunch of desks in one room with all critical business functions occurring within a 100 foot square area. I was helping with customer support and system administration and occasionally dabbling in software development. CEO Jeremy Hitchcock was watching over the finances, writing some code and also keeping an eye on customers. Others were building software and scaling systems.
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