The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is the subject of substantial controversy in the United States, and the domain name industry is squarely in the middle of the debate. Many DNS service providers and technology developers in the industry oppose SOPA, Afilias among them. Here's why.

I recently wrote about the encouraging level of DNSSEC adoption among top-level domain name registries, and noted that adoption at the second level and in applications is an important next step for adding more security to the DNS. The root and approximately 20 percent of the top level domains are now signed; it is time for registrars and recursive DNS servers operated by the ISPs to occupy center stage.

As the industry-wide paradigm shift to cloud computing and software-as-a-service gradually continues to make the transition from buzz to reality, security and availability continue to emerge as the main barriers to customer adoption. A recent ISACA survey of over 1,800 US IT professionals found that only 17 percent believe the benefits of cloud computing outweigh the risks. Only one in 10 respondents said they would consider using software-as-a-service (SaaS) for mission-critical applications.

Launches Proteus Cloud Services, the first managed DNS service to fully integrate internal and external DNS with IP Address Management

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 4 August 2010 – Today Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced that BlueCat Networks, the IPAM Intelligence™ company, has selected Afilias' FlexDNS^SM Platform to power its new DNS offering. Proteus Cloud Services is the first service that fully integrates internal and external DNS with centralized IP Address Management (IPAM), providing customers with the simplicity of a single interface and vendor to manage all of their IP and DNS needs on one of the most highly reliable DNS networks available.

Hosting companies face many challenges today, from differentiating their services in a crowded market with decreasing margins, to an increasing pressure to defend against growing sets of attacks against their infrastructure. As more and more services drift into the cloud, up-time is becoming one of the most critical factors for customers choosing a web host.

DDoS protection vendor gets better value with Afilias as its new managed DNS provider

AUSTIN, Texas (HOSTINGCON) - 19 July 2010 -Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced that Black Lotus Communications has selected Afilias' FlexDNS^SM Platform to provide DNS infrastructure in support of its distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection solutions. Black Lotus needed to replace its previous DNS provider in order to improve its resiliency to DDoS attacks and achieve better economy in its DNS management.

New service platform provides corporations and resellers with a flexible way to improve the reliability of their DNS network

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 17 June 2010- Today Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced the expansion of its Managed DNS services with the availability of its new FlexDNS^SM Platform. The FlexDNS Platform now provides Afilias' DNS customers with three different options for managing their DNS over Afilias' network: A Web-based portal, AXFR (DNS zone transfer), or an Application Programming Interface (API).