Dyn Tackles DNS

Company:

Headquarters: Manchester, N.H.

Technology Sector: Services

Key Product: Dynect Platform Traffic Manager

Year Founded: 2001

Number of Channel Partners: 5 to 10 in the U.S.

Ideal Channel Partner: Enterprise-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: Dyn takes care of the back-end Internet services that ensure that a customer's Web site stays up while reducing costs to the organization.

The Lowdown: Like many notable companies, Dyn was started in a college dorm room and eventually grew into something that the founders didn't anticipate. As school was drawing to a close, the Dyn team launched a fundraiser in 2000 with the goal of raising $25,000 to keep the small service up and running. The team raised $40,000, ended up officially incorporating in 2001 and now boasts Twitter as a client.

"We are basically an outsourced provider of DNS services specializing on taking the cost away from customers," said Jeremy Hitchcock, CEO and CFO of Dyn. "Our technology is like an Internet phone book that makes sure when a customer types in a Web address, the browser points at the right page."

But customers need to get their Web sites listed in those yellow pages, which means someone in an organization is working with DNS.

"Every company has a Web site or e-mail infrastructure or VoIP service these days," said Hitchcock. "That means someone in the organization is doing DNS."

Dynect Platform Traffic Manager is designed to take the cost away from managing DNS in an organization.

"A lot of companies spend a lot of time thinking about their core competencies and don't consider DNS one of them," said Hitchcock. "And because DNS isn't considered critical, often times companies look to partners to offload it onto."

Hitchcock acknowledges that Dyn is in the process of developing its channel program and strategy, but believes that the company provides flexibility in the pricing and terms of the deal to solution providers.

Partners who want to provide DNS services to customers can partner with Dyn in two ways. A referral system is in place where Dyn will pay solution providers for the business then handle the day-to-day for the customer. Or, for solution providers who want to be more hands-on, an online dashboard with settings configurations, audit history and usage, among other things, is available.

"We're flexible and open to channel relationships," said Hitchcock. "Each customer is going to be very different but we want to be able to meet the needs of both solution providers and their customers."