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In This Issue
- Woohoo! 34 billion DNS requests per day! With zero downtime!
- OpenDNS is making your Internet even faster (again)
- We're growing: Colleges and universities flock to OpenDNS
- Three simple steps to become a cybersecurity champion
- Five reasons you should follow @OpenDNS on Twitter
- Customer spotlight: Burger King
Woohoo! 34 billion DNS requests per day! With zero downtime!
OpenDNS Founder & CEO David Ulevitch at one of our 14 worldwide datacenters.
You read that right. We're now regularly handling a whopping 34 billion DNS requests daily! In July 2006 we opened our doors and let in the first packets, serving up a billion DNS requests in our first month in operation. We now do more than that in a single hour! And the best part of all: We've managed to do this with absolutely zero downtime in five years.
You've seen us use a variety of metrics to measure growth and declare milestones around here, but the amount of DNS we handle daily is a biggie. To us, it's testament that millions of home users just like you are demanding a better Internet and heading to OpenDNS to get it. That our savvy users recognize our commitment to improving the status quo when it comes to DNS and security, and that they're helping us grow by spreading the word to others. For that we say: Thanks a million. Or rather, thanks a 34 billion. ;)
Like all the milestones we deem significant, hitting 34 billion daily DNS requests deepens our commitment to acting as the most innovative provider of DNS and security services. We're squarely focused on continuing to make advances that will make the Internet safer faster, smarter and more reliable. And we hope that if you've got a great idea you'll post it in our IdeaBank, which is regularly monitored by our engineers. Still have friends that aren't using OpenDNS? Tell them about us and help give even more people safer, faster, smarter and more reliable Internet at home.
OpenDNS is making your Internet even faster (again)
Last month we announced that OpenDNS had teamed up with Google and leading content delivery networks on a technological innovation called the Global Internet Speedup that would make the Internet instantly faster for users around the world. The announcement was heralded by the world's top publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Time, Lifehacker and more. Now we're taking steps to make the Internet even faster for our 30+ million users.
OpenDNS has also implemented the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) draft RFC-6303. The draft recommends that recursive DNS providers make technological adjustments to how we handle a special type of DNS query that produces empty responses. What does that mean exactly? Well, there are certain IP addresses that are reserved for internal networks so we know that no one on the public Internet would be trying to access them. Sometimes, however, misconfigured servers still try to access them. Returning these queries wastes precious bandwidth. By supporting this draft, we're eliminating unnecessary traffic from being sent out, making the Internet even faster once again.
OpenDNS has long been the innovator in DNS, announcing never-before-seen features and functionality that make the Internet safer and faster for millions of people around the world. You can find a recap of those features, along with more technical details on RFC-6303, here.
We're growing: Colleges and universities flock to OpenDNS
Since very early on, the world of education has been a hugely important focus for OpenDNS. We've celebrated some incredible milestones over the past five years: 1 in 3 K-12 schools in the U.S. use OpenDNS, and the service is widely adopted by libraries and community organizations that offer tutoring and mentoring. Today we're celebrating another case of unprecedented OpenDNS adoption on the educational frontier: OpenDNS is now used on half of all U.S. college and university campuses.
Deployments of OpenDNS on higher education institution networks vary from entire-campus-wide, as in the case of leading U.S. schools like Vanderbilt University and George Washington University, to individual departments, computer labs, faculty lounges and student dormitory housing. This proves that OpenDNS is not only the choice of network administrators who insist on using world-class security to protect campus networks, but also that students are demanding safer, faster, smarter and more reliable Internet, too.
From the SysAdmins who deploy OpenDNS campus-wide for strategic protection from Internet threats to the students who choose OpenDNS to avoid the risk of exposing their personal computers to the high-traffic campus networks, thanks for making OpenDNS the preferred DNS and security provider for schools nationwide. Read the full announcement.
Three simple steps to become a cybersecurity champion
It's National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) in the U.S. and Canada, and we're celebrating by announcing a big honor. And a big responsibility, too. Along with Facebook, Google and leading technology and security companies, OpenDNS has been named a NCSAM Champion by StaySafeOnline.org. That means we've been tasked with spreading the word on what National Cybersecurty Awareness Month is all about, sharing tips and advice for staying safe online, and of course, continuing to innovate in the Internet security realm.
We wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to join us in this effort. Here are three simple steps for spreading the word about National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and keeping the people you care about safe online.
- Set up OpenDNS for your friends and family. Make sure they know using OpenDNS takes the guesswork out of identifying phishing attempts, corrects domain typos to keep them from hitting typosquatting trouble and protects against wide-scale threats.
- Share basic cybersecurity tips and tricks via Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Post your own, or share the tips we'll be posting to our Facebook and Twitter pages all month long. While some of the tips may seem obvious to you, they could be eye opening to your friends or family members.
- Take OpenDNS to work with you. OpenDNS offers a special service just for businesses that helps ensure you're as safe at work as you are on your home network. Give this flyer to someone in your IT department so they can learn the benefits of OpenDNS for work.
Five reasons you should follow @OpenDNS on Twitter
Meet Erin, OpenDNS community manager, who is eagerly awaiting your tweets.
Every day @OpenDNS is hosting lively discussions, sharing news and updates and most importantly, celebrating our incredible users on Twitter. Here are five reasons you should follow @OpenDNS:
- Raise your voice: OpenDNS users are talking, and when they share advice, success stories and interesting use cases we love retweeting the 140-character morsels of wisdom to our 11,000+ followers!
- Get the latest news first: Twitter is one of the first places we broadcast blog updates, new customer announcements, product or feature updates and company milestones. Plus, our Twitter team stays on top of malware and phishing trends, so you're always up-to-date, too.
- Meet the team: From Founder and CEO @Davidu to our savvy engineers and support team, OpenDNSers frequently take to Twitter to discuss new projects, ideas and technology trends. Our Twitter feed is a central place where you can find those thoughts retweeted.
- Join the party: Twitter is the first place we go to give away t-shirts, stickers and invites to exclusive events. And we're always listening to your success stories and keeping an eye out for OpenDNS super users to star in future campaigns. We want to meet you, and Twitter is a great place for an introduction.
- Find fast answers: Whether you're curious about a potential phishing site, have a caching question, or are trying to determine if your Internet issue is DNS related, we've got you covered.
Can you think of another reason to follow @OpenDNS on Twitter? Share it with @OpenDNS on Twitter and we'll retweet to our whole community.
Customer spotlight: Burger King
Mmmm. You know what goes great with a juicy flame-grilled burger and crispy golden fries? Free family-friendly Wi-Fi! Burger King deployed OpenDNS to 2,200 locations across Europe in order to ensure the free Wi-Fi it offers is family friendly, lightning fast, and ultra reliable.
Because it can be easily deployed in a matter of moments, and it can be remotely managed from a single Web-based interface, OpenDNS has long been the preferred choice of retail and hospitality organizations looking to offer family-friendly Wi-Fi to their multiple chain locations.
The fine folks responsible for the deployment raved, "OpenDNS is just plain wonderful. The deployment was quick and easy. All 2,200 locations get their own OpenDNS configuration without us having to visit the actual site or worry about anything."
Are you using OpenDNS at work and want to share your story? We'd love to hear it. Email Success@OpenDNS.com.
