Analysis of Domain Name Theory - VeriSign Inc - Case Study Example

Analysis of Domain Name Theory By Insert Name Course Unit: Instructor: College: Date: Abstract Domain Name Industries such as VeriSign Inc. are an important constituent of any country. They ensure survival of the entire society and bring about economic growth. They allow provision of basic needs as well as luxuries for the entire society. Technological development has enabled the industrial growth and proliferation of domain name industries in the entire continent and thus these industries have continued to have a growing economic impact on many countries. Developed countries and organization such as European Union have their own Top Level domains such as .ru(Russia) and .eu (European Union). VeriSign is a very crucial component of the Domain Name Industry and position the sales to the customers and also create growth and drive demand opportunities. VeriSign registry manufactures and sells domain; the domain develop technologies and tools that benefit the industry and boost the adoption of domain names. Introduction VeriSign, Inc (Nasdaq: VRSN) is an American based company that is based in Virginia. The company operates a wide range of network infrastructure such as .net, .com, .tv, .cc and .name; these are some of the standard top level domains. The company also operates internet too name servers and offers a wide range of security services such as digital certificates. Trust seals and two factor authentication or PKI. All these functions are grouped by the company under the ‘trusted internet infrastructure’ banner services. Generally VeriSign is the authoritative registry of all .com, .net, .name, .cc, and .tv domain names and provides registry services for a wide range of additional domain names. The industry plays a very critical role in the infrastructure of internet DNS as it is the registry operator of the two most significant top-level domains. It is also the registry operator that is contracted for top level domains that are country coded such as .tv(Tuvalu) and .cc for Cocos Islands. It is also a primary technical subcontractor for the .jobs, .edu and .name domains for their particular registry operators. Industry Analysis VeriSign was established in 1995 as an offshoot of the RSA Security certification services. It attained licenses to main cryptographic patents which had been held by RSA and a non-compete agreement which was time limited. Its main role was focused on certificate authority (CA) and the initial mission was to provide trust for the Internet and e commerce through its digital authentication products and services. Currently the company has more that three million operation certificates which range from financial to military services to retail applications. VeriSign is the largest certificate authority industry, which offers authentication and encryption on the internet. It is famous for the VeriSign secured Seal, which is an apparent expression of the encryption and authentication of a website. The secured seal is at most times posted to the VeriSign SSL Certificate customer’s Web sites. The company posted annual revenue of $ 1.66 billion in 2005 with over 3000 employees globally. VeriSign is divided into two large divisions; the communication services and Internet services. The internet services division took in the domain name registry such as .gov, .net, .com and .tv ; it thus houses the naming and directory services and other services which are elated to DNS and RFID. The Security services have a wide range of capabilities, which range from managed security services such as intrusion detection, firewalls, vulnerability protection and prevention among others to word wide security consulting. Generally VeriSign Inc. is a leading provider of intelligent infrastructure services that enable businesses and individuals to find, connect, secure and transact across complex global networks. The company is organized into business groups; the internet services group (ISG) and the Communications Service Group (CSG). The ISG consists of two business units; security services (SS) and naming and directory services (N&D). SS provides products and services that enable clients to establish and deliver secure internet based services. SS group offers four categories of services; network security services including managed security services such as VPNS and firewalls and global security consulting services. The second category is authentication services, which include managed public key infrastructure services and unified authentication services; commercial security including secure commerce site services, secure payment services, and digital brand management services, which assist legal professionals, information technology professionals and brand marketers to monitor, protect and build digital brand equity. The naming and directory acts as the exclusive registry of domain names in the .com and .net generic top level domains(gTLDs) and certain country code level domains (ccTLDs) as well as providing radio frequency identification(RFID) services. Communications Service Group offers managed communication services to fixed line, broadband, mobile operators and enterprise customers. Its offerings include network connectivity and interoperability services, intelligent database services, mobile content and application services, clearing and settlement services and billing and payment services. VeriSign recently acquired CallVision, a provider of online analysis applications. The acquisition allows VeriSign to deliver converged electronic bill presentation, payment and customer self care to its clients. In late 2005, it sold its payment gateway business to PayPal and acquired Retail Solutions Inc, a provider of operational point of sales data to the retail industry and acquired IDEFENSE, a network based security provide. VeriSign offers risk management programs, flexible spending accounts, tuition and health club reimbursement, referral bonuses, ergonomics consultation and childcare. By the end of 2010, VeriSign had a base of more than 205.3 million domain name registrations in the entire Top Level Domains (TLDs); this was an increase of 1.7 percent in the third quarter of year 2010 or 3.5 million domain names. In the entire year registrations grew by 6.3 percent or 12.1 million. The Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) base was 80.1 million domain names, which was a 1.1 percentage increase. This domains that accounted for this much increase were the .net TLDs and .com for they experiences a strong aggregate growth of about 105.2 million names. The new .net registrations and .com added up to 7.6 million in the last four months of 2010, which was a 1.6 percent increment in registration forms in the 3 quarter. There has been a 4 percent increase in new registrations year over year. The largest Top Level Domains in terms of the bases size were .com, .de. .net, .org, .uk, .info, .cn, .nl, .eu and .ru. Reference: VeriSign Inc. (2011). The Domain Name Industry Brief. Volume 8- Issue 1 Industry Structure VeriSign operates intelligent infrastructure services that facilitate and offer protection to billions of interactions everyday across the world data networks and world voices. VeriSign introduced a new operating structure in 2007 where the previous business enterprises-VeriSign Communication Services (VCS), VeriSign Information Services (VIS) and VeriSign Security Services (VSS) were combined to offer an integrated portfolio through an integrated sales and service team across many industries. The company operation structure currently has two main functional units; each of these units is led by a VeriSign or industry veteran who reports directly to the CEO. The company Sales and Consulting Services group combines the industry many sales and consulting functions into one organization that is focused on strategic partnership, global accounts and global channel relationships. This group is aligned by the vertical industry to pay attention to particular customer needs and delivering solutions; it include the in marketing consulting services of VeriSign. The products and marketing group is concerned with delivery and support, responsible development and support services for all VeriSign solutions and products to all business sizes. VeriSign includes all aspects of product development, product management, customer and marketing support. VeriSign also has a team that looks at long term emerging market trends and product line synergies. The core product team works with the marketing team to address marketing and media market needs, healthcare, financial services, public and retail sector. This structure has made VeriSign a between business partners that values the customer feedbacks. It unleashes full portfolio to provide solutions that are more integrated. These solutions assist customers in capitalizing on their biggest opportunities in many industries. The internet services division takes in the domain name registry such as .gov, .net, .com and .tv ; it houses the naming and directory services and other services which are elated to DNS and RFID. The Security services have a wide range of capabilities, which range from managed security services such as intrusion detection, firewalls, vulnerability protection and prevention among others to word wide security consulting. VeriSign also offers global security solutions such as compliance, design, certification and assessments; email security such as antivirus and anti spam; strong authentication such as remote access validation and tokens and original SSL or digital certificates business, which include the High Assurance Extended Validation SSL certificates. VeriSign handles 32 billion domain system inquiries every day. There are various types of businesses under VeriSign, which include Computer Software Secure Digital IDs, Telecommunication Services, Network & e-Mail Security, Managed Security Services, Digital Brand Management, Wireless Content Services, Wireless Content Services, Wireless and Wire line Billing Services and Domain Name Registration. VeriSign also has various divisions; R4 Global solutions, Retail Solutions Inc, iDEFENSE and Lightbridge Intelligent Network Solutions. Supply VeriSign is a technical subcontractor for various internet domains such as .net, .edu, .jobs and .names domains for their particular registry operators, which are nonprofit organizations. It maintains the zone files for these particular domains and hosts the domains from their domain servers. Those operate the registry are at most times a wholesale role although there are many retail registrars which sell the .net and .com and other domains to the clients. The company is the main maintainer of the root zone file of the internet and processes all changes to it. The company’s authorities such as ICANN are normally in charge of the particular top-level domain and request changes to the root zone file, which must be consented by the United Stated Department of Commerce. In case the department approves the root zone file, it instructs VeriSign to make appropriate changes. At first these changes were distributed through the A root server, however they are nowadays distributed to all the Internet ‘s root name servers, A and J. The rest 11 are operated by particular authorities and institutions. VeriSign is the only root sever operator that manages over one server. Conclusion VeriSign is more than a domain name industry as it has built the world most powerful digital infrastructure that allows and protects more than 25 billion communications on a daily basis. Its structure allows its management and workers to focus on a common mission of facilitating their clients to accelerate their transformations to any era by assisting them to bring new services to market more efficiently and quickly. References Domain Name and Internet Infrastructure. Retrieved from < http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/products-and- services/index.xhtml;jsessionid=782DF9990A0CF355CC9669BA454E77A2.dul1lxwww app01-admin> State of the Domain. Domain Name Industry Brief. Retrieved on March 24 2010 from < http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/why-verisign/research-trends/domain-name-industry- brief/index.xhtml?loc=en_US The VeriSign Domain Primer. February 2004. Domain Name Industry. The Domain Name Industry Brief 2004. Volume 1-Issue 4. Retrieved from March 28, 2011 from www.verisign.com/domainbriefs VeriSign Inc. (2011). The Domain Name Industry Brief. Volume 8- Issue 1 VeriSign Products and Services. Retrieved on March 28, 2011 from < http://www.verisign.com/products-services/index.html?tid=gnps> Read More