OpenDNS Uses NGINX to Scale Quickly and get Excellent Performance

Overview

OpenDNS is a security services company based on DNS trust and management. The company was purchased by Cisco in 2015, and now produces Umbrella, a service and software product which allows users to filter their Internet experience at the DNS level, blocking out phishing sites, pornography, and DDoS attacks.

Challenge

OpenDNS has more than 85 million users worldwide. The company operates 25+ data centers around the globe, and must maintain its service availability 24/7. This requires high‑performance systems that can handle heavy loads of traffic, and do so securely.

The key deliverable for OpenDNS is trusted, reliable Internet access via its software and DNS servers. Its internal systems also play a role in this transaction by keeping blocked site data entries up to date and secure, weeding out the bad parts of the Internet at the DNS layer.

As a growing company, OpenDNS required solutions to its scaling problems. They required infrastructure software solutions that could work between data centers, maintain high performance, and didn’t require weeks or months of retraining for its internal IT teams.

Solution

Aram Grigoryan, Software Engineer at OpenDNS, says, “We run a global cloud around the world, and we needed a technology which could help us scale quickly and actually handle the traffic we had. NGINX was a good candidate, we had heard a lot of good things about it, and it delivered.”

Currently, OpenDNS uses NGINX primarily for load balancing and web serving, though it also uses other features. The speed and performance of NGINX in both of these categories is unmatched, says Grigoryan. The OpenDNS team was able to utilize their needed NGINX features quickly, as well.

Results

NGINX is now an essential part of OpenDNS’ global infrastructure. With so many millions of users around the world relying on the OpenDNS platform for their security, it was important that the solution used be reliable and stable. Grigoryan says that NGINX has met both of these needs, and will remain a part of the company’s infrastructure plans far into the future.

About OpenDNS

OpenDNS is a global security company focused on building solutions around domain name systems and services. That means OpenDNS can offer DDoS protection, adult content filtering, and trust extension throughout the Internet via its services. Users simply add OpenDNS’ DNS servers to their network configuration, or install OpenDNS software, and they are automatically protected from dangerous sites on the Internet. OpenDNS responds to 100 billion DNS queries daily from 85 million users through 25+ data centers worldwide. The company was purchased by Cisco in 2015.