VeriSign: 48 Billion DNS Queries A Day

VeriSign processed peak loads of more than 48 billion Domain Name System (DNS) queries per day in the second quarter of 2008, the company said yesterday in its latest Domain Report. The number of peak daily DNS requests has doubled since the start of 2007, when they stood at 24 billion per day.

That's why VeriSign is investing $100 million in upgrading the DNS infrastructure for the .com and .net top-level domains. Last year VeriSign deployed new infrastructure in Miami, New York City, Chicago, Palo Alto and Washington, DC to upgrade its DNS resolution sites. VeriSign's long-term goal is to expand its capacity to handle more than 4 trillion DNS requests per day by 2010.

VeriSign (VRSN) said its DNS service continued to maintain 100 percent uptime during the second quarter, as it has for the past decade.

"Securing and protecting the integrity of DNS is critical to the stability of the global Internet, and VeriSign is continuing to make investments that improve the scalability and fortification of this critical infrastructure," said Raynor Dahlquist, senior vice president of Naming Services, VeriSign. "VeriSign's unique capability to operate global networks of this nature at this scale and reliability remains unparalleled."