Beginnings

First, there's the history. Neustar Security Services is the modern home of UltraDNS, the original enterprise DNS service. That pedigree is not just a marketing hook; it represents two decades of experience dealing with critical infrastructure for customers who really don't want to be down. That history breeds a certain kind of pragmatism that comes across in every department I'm introduced to. It speaks to a focus on the customer.

That pragmatism is also reflected in the edge platform architecture, which is the second big difference. There are some places where such platforms are jealously guarded kingdoms, where change is feared and heretics are not tolerated. Neustar Security Services is not that place. The current service edge is high-capacity, designed to handle over 9 trillion DNS transactions per day, fifty times the current steady-state capacity. It makes the previous, high-capacity service edge look small, and this pattern can be expected to continue into the future, since we know that no single upgrade is ever enough. Decoupling the platform from the services like this is possible because, at Neustar Security Services, distribution of services is metadata and metadata is fungible. The platform doesn't really matter because as long as it’s big enough, the services don't care where they run. The ability to reimagine the way that services are deployed globally and to make changes with confidence is the essence of service agility.

That agility in how services are deployed leads neatly to the third clear difference, and this is a big one: Neustar Security Services' approach to application security. The agility in service delivery dovetails elegantly into the network security platform, because you can't hope to cope with attacks you haven't seen yet without being able to think on your feet and adapt. And the network security platform is impressive—it's not just there to defend UltraDNS. It's relied upon by web-scale services across the world to keep their businesses online and stable.

The ability to deal with attack traffic at massive scale and the flexibility to apply those mitigations when and where they are needed closes the circle of my first few weeks of exploration—we're back to the pragmatism that comes from experience.

So that’s the little difference at Neustar Security Services — a little difference that is a big deal when it comes to keeping customers safe. Operational security isn't just an exercise in risk assessment. It's a routine aspect of service delivery. Just another day (not) at the office. You get really good at things that you do every day.