It's 2023 and the time is now to make DNS failover a standard practice. With growing global connectivity, one of the most important reasons to have DNS failover would be to ensure high availability and reliability of online services and applications.

As more retail businesses and major corporations rely on the internet for their operations, any disruption, big or small, in the DNS infrastructure can cause significant downtime and financial losses. We know that people don't have patience in today's climate, and even a minor hiccup can turn into a major blunder. Today’s post will cover three reasons why DNS failover should be a standard practice in 2023.

How does DNS failover work?

Failover is a highly effective yet simple tool that allows you to change the IP or hostname your traffic is pointed to in the event your primary endpoint is down.

Here is an example: When the primary IP address is up, traffic is routed to the primary IP, naturally. DigiCert DNS monitoring nodes continuously check your primary IP’s availability every two to four minutes. If the IP fails to respond from two different locations, it is then considered down. Traffic will automatically be served by the secondary IP address and an alert will immediately notify the account administrator when the Failover event occurs. Pretty simple, right? Monitoring nodes will continue to check the availability of the down primary IP until it is available again. When the primary IP becomes available, traffic will automatically be rerouted back to the primary IP.

This is the ultimate set it and forget it solution — and it is an invaluable asset.

Cloud services & failover

As organizations continue to move their services and applications to the cloud, they become more dependent on the DNS infrastructure. With increased resilience on cloud services, DNS failover can ensure that these services and applications remain accessible even in the event of a cloud outage. We are thankful to have a 12+-year outage free 100% uptime record, but if you are still using another provider, you may want to consider switching providers or adding DigiCert DNS as your secondary provider.

Decrease cyber threats with DNS failover

According to a report from Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime could cost more than $8 trillion dollars worldwide in 2023. Another study from Forbes shows cybercriminals can hack 93% of company networks. With the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks, the likelihood of DNS attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and DNS hijacking is also increasing. DNS failover can mitigate the impact of such attacks and help maintain service availability.

For example, in a DDoS attack, the attacker floods a server with a large volume of traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users. With DNS failover, if the primary server is under attack, the DNS server can quickly switch to an alternate server, such as a backup or a cloud-based service, to ensure that traffic is still routed to a functional server.

DNS failover exceeds customer expectations

Within recent years millions have transitioned to remote work, and this has become more of the norm for businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend of remote work, which means more employees are accessing business applications and services over the internet. DNS failover can ensure that these employees can continue to access these services even if there is a DNS outage. This enables higher productivity and increased output from employees, which increases the bottom line for businesses.

Customer expectations have skyrocketed in 2023, and according to Forbes, consumers increasingly want their relationships and interactions with brands to be memorable and experiential. This means that brands that want to stay relevant must create customer journeys that are thoughtful, memorable experiences. With the rise of e-commerce and other online services, customers expect 24/7 availability of these services. DNS failover can help businesses meet these expectations and avoid brand reputation damage due to prolonged downtime. DNS failover helps to fulfill the need for an ideal online experience that consumers have come to expect.

It is abundantly clear that DNS failover is crucial for ensuring high availability and reliability of online services and applications in 2023 and beyond. It is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect your domains and should be a standard practice in 2023.

If your organization does not have DNS failover enabled, one of our DNS experts would be more than happy to assist with a game plan for success with a customized demo.