Sun and Nominum upgrading DNS at Bell Canada

Two months after signing a partnership agreement to deliver carrier-grade domain name system solutions to carriers, Sun Microsystems and Nominum announced today that Bell Canada will use their joint solutions to upgrade its DNS infrastructure.

The joint solution will operate Nominum’s network naming and addressing software on Sun Fire x64 servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System, which the companies have optimized for carrier-grade resiliency in the face of growing network attacks.

“With the number of attacks on DNS and the growth and future growth of traffic, DNS is now a critical element that needs to hardened the same way people have hardened their routing and switching,” said Albert Gouyet, vice president of marketing at Nominum.

The Nominum Foundation Caching Name Server for DNS includes advanced security features to help prevent cache-poisoning attacks and pharming, which is a form of address spoofing that directs users to the wrong Web site. It also is ready to support cryptographically-signed zones as the adoption of DNS Security Extension (DNSSEC) progresses.

The Sun Fire x64 servers use AMD Opteron processors, which Bruce Baikie, telecom industry strategy manager at Sun, said that along with the resiliency of the Solaris 10 operating systems is critical for Sun to bringing a more robust solution to its customers.

For Bell Canada, Gouyet said, “This is all about the future. It’s about having a platform and infrastructure that is ready for growth, ready for new real-time applications like VoIP and can [withstand] attacks whatever they are.”

Sun and Nominum also have sold their combined solution to Telefonica de Espana, Telewest, THUS in the UK and others.

Nominum CNS includes advanced security features to help prevent cache-poisoning attacks and is ready to support cryptographically-signed zones as the adoption of DNS Security Extension (DNSSEC) progresses. Customers choosing Sun Fire x64 architecture servers have the flexibility to run the Solaris Operating System, Linux, and Windows; allowing them to deploy a single server architecture, in line with their technical objectives.

“We’ve created a platform that has five [times] to10 times more performance than open source systems. It is more reliable and secure and has number of new features,” Gouyet said.

Redwood City, Calif.-based Nominum is also a global provider of ENUM-based IP-Application Routing Directory, DNS, and DHCP solutions that enable communication providers to deliver always-on broadband Internet and other services, including VoIP, Push-to-talk, fixed/mobile convergence, IPTV and other triple-play services.