Amazon Web Services Launches New DNS Service

Amazon Web Services has announced Amazon Route 53, a Domain Name System Web service giving developers and businesses a highly available and reliable way to route Internet traffic to Web applications by translating human readable names into numeric IP addresses.

Amazon Route 53 can be used to route users to multiple AWS services including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), an Amazon Elastic Load Balancer or an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket, and to infrastructure outside of AWS.

The Amazon Route 53 global network of DNS servers is designed to automatically respond from the optimal network location, resulting in low DNS query latency for end users. Route 53 features a familiar, self-service design with an affordable pay-as-you-go model where customers pay only for managing domains through the service and the number of queries that the service answers. To get started using Amazon Route 53, visit: http://aws.amazon.com/route53.

The Internet's DNS system works much like a phone book by managing the mapping between names and numbers. For DNS, the names are domain names (www.example.com) that are easy for people to remember and the numbers are IP addresses (192.0.2.1) that specify the location of computers on the Internet. DNS servers translate requests for names into IP addresses, controlling which server an end user will connect to when they type a domain name into their web browser.

"Our customers have asked for a DNS service with all the same qualities of the other AWS services that they use every day - flexible, scalable, no commitment, inexpensive, and pay-as-you go,” said Tal Saraf, General Manager of Amazon CloudFront, in a statement. “That's exactly what Amazon Route 53 provides. Now AWS customers who need a DNS service don't have to work with a separate provider and instead can get this additional infrastructure service with the AWS platform - all at a fraction of the price [of what they normally pay]."

Amazon Route 53 uses a network of DNS servers located across the globe, which enables businesses anywhere in the world to leverage the AWS infrastructure to achieve the level of dependability required to keep their web applications available. Amazon Route 53 also lets customers place strict controls over who can manage their DNS system by allowing integration with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). This gives customers greater control over user access, including the ability to grant unique credentials and permissions for each user within their AWS account.

Newsweek Digital, which features content from the Newsweek magazine and original content online through Newsweek.com and mobile devices, has plans to use the new service.

"We are excited about the release of a DNS service from Amazon Web Services," said Nathan Butler, director of Web Infrastructure and Operations at Newsweek, in a statement. "We plan to get started quickly using Amazon Route 53, and we anticipate a potential cost savings of up to 99 percent if we were to offload all of our DNS traffic to AWS."

Meanwhile, RightScale offers a cloud management platform, delivered as software as a service, that helps businesses benefit from the scalable, cost-effective and on-demand power of cloud computing. "The new DNS service adds an important feature to the AWS platform that will make it an even more powerful solution for a variety of cloud deployments," said Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale, in a statement. "We plan to support Amazon Route 53 throughout our management platform, including in our Solution Packs for scalable websites and resilient MySQL database configurations, and we look forward to helping our customers take advantage of the new DNS offering."