DNS
Definition
Domain Name System - translates human-readable website names into computer addresses, facilitating easy navigation and access to online resources.
Use Cases
- Netflix: Highly available global access to streaming services with resilient name resolution and traffic steering during outages. — Netflix has publicly discussed using DNS-based traffic management patterns (commonly implemented with managed DNS providers) to direct users to healthy endpoints and shift traffic when regions or services degrade. (Improved resilience and continuity of service by enabling rapid traffic shifts and reducing the impact of localized failures.)
- Shopify: Reliable domain resolution for storefronts and APIs to keep ecommerce sites reachable worldwide. — Shopify provides guidance for merchants to point domains using DNS records (A/AAAA/CNAME/TXT) so storefront traffic resolves correctly and can be secured/verified (for example, domain verification via TXT records). (Faster, more reliable customer access to stores and fewer setup issues through standardized DNS configurations.)
Provider Equivalents
- AWS: Amazon Route 53
- Azure: Azure DNS
- GCP: Cloud DNS
- OCI: OCI DNS
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between DNS and an IP address?
- An IP address is the numeric address of a server (like 142.250.185.78). DNS is the system that translates a name you can remember (like google.com) into that IP address so your device knows where to connect.
- When should I use DNS?
- Use DNS any time you want people or systems to reach something by name instead of by IP address—websites, APIs, email servers, and internal services. In cloud setups, DNS is also used to point a domain to a load balancer, enable blue/green deployments by switching records, and create private DNS names for services inside a VPC/VNet.
- How much does DNS cost?
- Costs depend on the provider and usage. Common pricing factors are: (1) number of hosted zones (domains) you manage, (2) number of DNS queries answered, and (3) optional features like health checks, advanced routing, or DNS security. Many providers charge a small monthly fee per zone plus a per-million-queries rate; internal/private DNS may be bundled or priced differently.
Category: networking
Difficulty: basic
Related Terms
See Also