Afnic Consolidates Management of French Territory Domains

As Registry operators have expanded their services to administer geographic top level domains, many have kept infrastructures that were as splintered as the territories themselves. However, just recently one of Europe’ leading registry service providers, Afnic, announced that they have completed their backend merger of four French overseas country code extensions. Country code extensions such as dot re for Reunion Island, dot mq for Martinique, dot yt for Mayotte and dot pm for Saint Pierre and Miquelon are now being powered by one cohesive backend infrastructure.

Previously each registry database had been running its own software independently of one another, leading to unnecessary complications for domain name registrars abroad and regional organizations looking to expand their online presence. This movement towards backend consolidation sets the precedent for streamlining geographic registry performance worldwide.

Consolidating multiple infrastructure backends into one significantly reduces the cost of maintaining legacy loops for registry operators. By allowing these stand alone geographic strings to share a single technical backbone, Afnic drastically reduces expenditures associated with forcing software developers to maintain four completely separate API plugins. The benefits to domain name shoppers and resellers are two-fold. Integration means that newly registered domains under these extensions will benefit from improved routing stability and rapid release times.

Regional websites run by independent programmers will also feel more at home adopting these exotic ccTLDs when there is a familiar looking plugin they can easily integrate with. “We literally saved our company thousands in dev hours because we didn’t need to maintain four different API plugins just to manage our local brand extensions.” said one network administrator based out of Paris.

Timing this transition to backend harmonization couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for local website development. Metrics analyzed 24/7 by the nTLDStats Live Global Registry Tracker show that corporations and domain investors are flooding into geographic extensions as a method for acquiring instant brand equity within local communities.

Streamlining the average performance of these overseas registries allows Afnic to guarantee that anyone visiting a secured website hosted under one of these extensions will benefit from high-speed connectivity and automatic security updates. Making sure these regions have access to the same premier level of security and efficiency that Americans have come to expect from generic top level domains solidifies the long term valuation of these once obscure country codes.

Enabling Performance: Shared Extensions, API Harmonization, & Rolling Threat Mitigation

Driving at the core of Afnic’ decision to consolidate these formerly mismanaged extensions is their latest deployment of Enterprise Level Extensible Provisioning Protocol, better known as EPP. In the past, domain name registrars would’ve been forced to develop four unique lines of scripting in order to manage basic CRUD operations for each extension.

Rolling out a single shared EPP doorway condenses this unnecessary redundancy and allows domain name registrars to access the shared backend engine with relative ease. What this means for the end consumer is that every alteration to a domain name registrant; be it a change of nameservers or edit to authorization codes, will be pushed instantly to the database with zero delay. Say goodbye to debugging pathetically antiquated code snippets, domain name shoppers will experience a smoother checkout process than ever before.

Not only will this backend merger enable higher performance standards for each domain activated under a French overseas extension, but it will allow Afnic to enforce a higher degree of automation when it comes to rolling out major infrastructure changes. Because each individual extension are now running on the same backend engine, Afnic has the ability to blanket sign each extension with DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) signatures without lifting a finger. DNSSEC works by cryptographically signing each domain name with a unique digital fingerprint.

If someone were to create a counterfeit version of your website at example .pm, visitors would be met with a security warning when trying to access the fraudulent destination. “With DNSSEC now being pushed to our registries automatically, we’ve seen an immediate reduction in phishing activity.” says one engineer working in the Anti-Abuse department, who also requested to remain anonymous.

Rolling out security updates is only one method Afnic can now use to fight abusive domain registrations within their indian country code extension family. Taking advantage of newfound API harmonization also allows Afnic to fight back against domain name registrants who attempt to misuse these extensions for evil. If a cyber criminal were to deploy malware under one of these domains,

Afnic’ centralized abuse detection systems would be able to slap an registry-lock on all related domains propagation instantly. This is just one example of how bridging together formerly isolated backends opens up the doorway to powerful rolling mitigation tactics. Combining abuse logs across multiple domains not only allows for threats to be detected quicker, but it also saves Afnic money by securing multiple threats with one single registry adjustment.

The Future of Regional NICs: Increasing Value for Localized Brands & Domain Portfolios Everywhere

While improvements to uptime statistics and DNS response speeds are always a nice added bonus for domain speculators, regional websites actually stand to gain the most from this sudden movement towards infrastructure harmonization. Internet users tend to place an intrinsic value on websites published under a ccTLD that matches their location, causing some local businesses to forgo registering highly coveted .com keywords in exchange for a more localized web address. Making sure these premium domain names point to high-quality registrar engines equipped with modern security protocols empowers local businesses to start building their brands online without fearing being out-competed by large corporations purchasing .coms.

Corporate brands care about infrastructure consolidation just as much as retail domainers. In the past some companies may have been dissuaded from defensively registering their trademarks under a French overseas extension due to technical uncertainties with boutique registrar interfaces. Removing friction points for domain name registration not only encourages corporates to defensively register their trademarks under these ccTLDs, but it also opens up the doorway for large brand managers to feel more comfortable acquiring keyword-rich domains under any extension Afnic manages. High-value domains sell themselves, and by preparing these extensions with cutting edge infrastructure, Afnic has created a lucrative opportunity for corporations looking to diversify their defensive brand registries.

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRAPHIC OF REGIONAL ADOPTION |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Consolidation of formerly mismanaged Infrastructure Begins with Afnic] |

| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ (Drop in Registration Scripting Friction) |
| [Domain Registration Ports Open to Global New Entrants] |

| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ (Corporate & Small Businesses Register Keywords) |
| [Increase in High Quality Domain Sales under .MQ, .YT, .PM, and .RE] |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

As globalization starts to creep back into the mainstream consciousness of domain name investors, there has never been a better time to diversify your holdings into underdeveloped geographic marketplaces. Early movers will be able to scoop up high quality, intuitive domain names that are bound to perform well as each extension gains notoriety within their local communities.

Purchasing .coms for small business owners within these high traffic regions might sound like a novel idea, but suggesting them a local alternative that can be obtained from a registrar they’ve heard of beforehand is priceless. Operating under a shared infrastructure also allows investors to rest easy knowing that some of the largest registry engineers in Europe are defending the technical performance of their domain names 24/7.

4 Steps to Future Proof your Geographic Domain Portfolio

Assuring that your geographic domain names will continue to perform well under a newly integrated registry requires some forethought and planning on behalf of the domain owner. The first step is to ensure that your geographic domain names are registered through a NATURAL:PORT forwarding compatible registrar. Compiled down below is a list of tasks domain name registrants should be completing within the next week in order to best prepare your domain names for changes to come.

+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| CHECKLIST FOR AUDITING GEOGRAPHIC DOMAINS |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Verify that all geo domains (.YT, .RE, .PM, etc.) are registered through the same REG |
| Synchronize brand contact information with your Domains LLC identity verification CODE |
| Enable Automatic DNSSEC Signing via your Registrar’s client interface |
| Implement Domain Name Wire DNS Monitoring alerts for each domain |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

Secondly, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with your registrar’ DNS Management Console. All geographic domains managed through Afnic will need to have DNSSEC enabled via your registrar. Enabling DNSSEC will help ensure that your website maintains the highest availability ratings possible by allowing visitors to access your website without interference from cache poisoning attacks.

Finally, set up customized domain abuse alerts for each domain name you own via a third-party service like Domain Name Wire. Domain Name Wire monitors registry changes across millions of domains worldwide. By enabling alerts for your domain names, you’ll be able to respond to malicious activities against your domain names faster than the average brand protection service.

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