EfficientIP > Case Studies > Improving ISP Customer Experience With Scalable High Performance DNS

Improving ISP Customer Experience With Scalable High Performance DNS

Company Size

200-1,000

Region

Asia

Country

India

Product

EfficientIP SOLIDserver DNS
EfficientIP DNS Firewall
EfficientIP SmartArchitecture

Tech Stack

DNS servers
Virtual appliances
GUI

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Cybersecurity
Fleet Management
Intrusion Detection Systems

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
Cybersecurity Services

About The Customer

FusionNet is a Class A Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing next generation broadband services across India, for both residential users and enterprise businesses. With over 250 employees, FusionNet ranked 29th in India as per data released by TRAI in Nov 2020. As part of their expansion strategy, FusionNet needed to move away from their conventional DNS servers and implement a solution capable of meeting the performance, scalability and security required to meet regulatory and user experience demands. A purpose-built DNS solution was therefore mandatory.

The Challenge

FusionNet, a Class A Internet Service Provider (ISP) in India, was facing several challenges with their conventional DNS servers. The rapidly increasing number of subscribers was causing performance issues, with DNS queries not being resolved in a timely manner, severely affecting customer experience. The rise in complaints from home broadband users regarding lack of internet access resulted in the call center often becoming overloaded. Security was another major concern for FusionNet. Security policies were difficult to enforce, and regulatory issues were at risk as there was no way to block the domains being requested, in accordance with the list defined by government authorities. DNS attacks were mostly service affecting, leading to a 17% increase in average customer churn, causing an associated revenue impact. The workaround of pointing to 3rd party providers in the cloud for providing the DNS service diminished FusionNet’s operational control and opened up issues around compliance.

The Solution

To overcome their long list of challenges, FusionNet reviewed several DNS vendors, including EfficientIP. The EfficientIP SOLIDserver DNS was chosen as it clearly stood out in terms of being technically superior and the most commercially viable, as well as offering highest flexibility. The timely support given by the knowledgeable EfficientIP team was also a deciding factor. SOLIDserver virtual appliances were installed in the Delhi office to provide simple-to-manage DNS services in high availability mode, with blacklisting domains being obtained from the Government of India. To block these forbidden domains, FusionNet made use of the EfficientIP DNS Firewall product, which came readily installed in the DNS appliances at no extra cost. For simplifying deployment, FusionNet benefited from the EfficientIP SmartArchitecture feature. Making use of SmartArchitecure’s state-of-the-art policy driven templates helped them automate and accelerate rollout of DNS services, while practically eliminating the risk of configuration errors.

Operational Impact

Moving to a purpose-built solution has made DNS management far simpler for FusionNet. Work delegation of repetitive tasks is now possible, so responsibility can be given to other team members, freeing up valuable time for expert staff.
FusionNet staff are also less stressed when it comes to regulatory compliance, as the DNS Firewall solution keeps the list of forbidden domains always up to date by automatically synchronizing with the government feed.
Administrators now also have far better control over security policies, thanks to having enhanced visibility over the requests made to the DNS Firewall lists (using analytics on domains which have been visited). Security has therefore been strengthened, and troubleshooting made far easier due to the level of stats provided by the SOLIDserver.
On the subscriber side, important customer experience improvements have been noted, confirmed by the reduction in customer churn numbers. This has been made possible by the EfficientIP SOLIDserver DNS increasing request-handling performance by over 300% - while retaining similar infrastructure - helping eliminate DNS outages and provide the quality of service that FusionNet has been striving for.
Finally, horizontal scalability has been made possible with the SmartArchitecture functionality of SOLIDserver, an important factor given the rapid rate of subscriber growth, and the plans for future company expansion.

Quantitative Benefit