Nominum Calls Open Source DNS "a Recipe For Problems"

Raindeer writes "Commercial DNS software provider Nominum, in an effort to promote its new cloud-based DNS service, SKYE, has slandered all open source/freeware DNS packages. It said: 'Given all the nasty things that have happened this year, freeware is a recipe for problems, and it's just going to get worse. ... So, whether it's Eircom in Ireland or a Brazilian ISP that was attacked earlier this year, all of them were using some variant of freeware. Freeware is not akin to malware, but is opening up those customers to problems.' This has the DNS community fuming. Especially when you consider that Nominum was one of the companies affected by the DNS cache poisoning problem of last year, something PowerDNS, MaraDNS and DJBDNS (all open source) weren't vulnerable to."

Comments

Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better.

[Spazztastic]

Yeah, because the poster child of closed source - Windows - is *so* secure...

I resent that, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Windows is the most secure system in the entire world as long as you leave the system unplugged from the network and inside of a Faraday cage. With the USB ports disabled and no CD-ROM/Floppy drive. And armed guards at the door.

It's a feasible option for any business.

Blow more smoke up our posteriors...

[autocracy]

I'll sum up their argument: We use security through obscurity, and that makes us better. You should pay us for that. Also, when we say "cloud-based," we really just mean "in our data centers." They're really abusing the definition of cloud computing, just because it's the current profit-generating buzzword.

Re:Blow more smoke up our posteriors...

[Chris Mattern]

Does the word "cloud" have any particular meaning?

"Cloud" means "in our data centers", so that you're paying us money. If you're still using your own servers, you're not in the "cloud", and you're not paying us money.

Obviously, it is absolutely imperative that you migrate all your services to the cloud.

Re:Yeah, Like Closed Source is better.

[Spazztastic]

I resent that, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Windows is the most secure system in the entire world as long as you leave the system unplugged from the network and inside of a Faraday cage. With the USB ports disabled and no CD-ROM/Floppy drive. And armed guards at the door.

It's a feasible option for any business.

Until you turn it on...

I NEVER TOLD YOU TO DO THAT! YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!

Good Grief

[MightyMartian]

I don't know about you, but any company that feels the only way they can sell their product is to basically slander their competitors isn't likely to get my attention. As it is, and as much of a pain in the ass as Bind can be, I have yet to encounter anything quite as powerful as Bind9. It's certainly not without flaws, but after having had to deal with the inadequacies of Microsoft's DNS, anyone who comes up to me and says "Oh yeah, those open source DNS servers are the lesser products" is either a liar or a moron.

Re:Good Grief

[MightyMartian]

Well, I haven't seen a product that is as powerful as Bind9, paid or unpaid. The pain in the ass bit is simply the configuration, which when you start talking about various views based on ACLs, can get a bit eye-splitting (but then again, that applies to lots of things with ACLs, like Cisco IOS, Squid, etc).

The guy is a liar. You know it. I know it. I think anybody who actually works with DNS infrastructure knows it.

Freeware will not eat your children

[spun]

"But it is opening up these customers to problems." Nice, textbook FUD/propaganda. Put the thought out there. Deflect attention from your own failings. Lump all 'freeware' DNS into the same basket. Call it 'freeware' instead of Open Source to link it to badly written DOS/Windows programs. Wow, this company is sleazy. It would be such poetic justice for some grey hat hackers to take these goons down.

Open source DNS is tried and true, everyone uses it. No one was ever fired for installing BIND. This new flash in the pan company has been hacked before, how long until they are hacked again? Why trust your DNS to some untested startup using inappropriate buzzwords like 'cloud computing?' Why pay for what you can get for free? Why outsource your DNS to someone who may or may not be here tomorrow? Heh. We can play at the FUD game, too.

Re:Well

[the_womble]

The argument will be that since they run Redhat it's not considered open source or freeware, even though it is a Linux distribution that is proprietary.

It is easy enough to prove that Red Hat is open source, the problem is that the "repeat the press release" standard of journalism of the article that accepts any assertion made by an interviewee or a press release as fact.

Contradictions

[Bert64]

You really do need to look under the hood and kick the tyres. Maybe it's a Ferrari on the outside, but it could be an Austin Maxi on the inside.

He contradicts himself, he tells you to kick the tyres and look under the hood, and then touts his product which he explicitly states won't let you look under the hood...

It's like meat

[CopaceticOpus]

I have the same problem with using local butchers. They buy their meat on the open market, and it is possible to track that meat down to the farm where the cow came from. Those cows are kept outdoors, where anyone can see them. Lord knows what toxins people might be injecting into those cows.

That's why I only eat meat from MeatCorp. All of MeatCorp's meat is made behind closed doors, in a giant, guarded metal building. Nobody knows what happens inside, and that makes me feel safe when I eat MeatCorp brand Meat Circles.

Re:Well

[whoever57]

But why is it the journalist's job to spell out that you're reading a press release from a commercial DNS provider denigrating competition.

Because that's the job of a reporter -- to investigate, analyse, interpret and explain the information. Otherwise, the reporter is adding no value and simple economic theory would suggest that his/her job should disappear.

And newspaper owners wonder why they are losing business?