Catchpoint transforms their approach to DNS with IBM NS1 Connect
Some of the world’s largest organizations rely on Catchpoint for internet performance monitoring (IPM). To support their global footprint—the largest global agent network, with thousands of devices in over 100 countries—the company relies on a performant and resilient domain name system (DNS) service to help ensure global telemetry is properly ingested and customers are promptly notified if any issues arise.
However, their previous DNS provider experienced a crippling distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack and multiple outages, which compromised Catchpoint’s ability to deliver reliable services and be the trusted authority on internet performance for their customers. This event marked an important turning point for Catchpoint. They couldn’t risk client confidence on a faulty system.
Catchpoint needed a DNS solution that could minimize operational friction, integrate seamlessly with their existing infrastructure and prevent data loss caused by potential retries during DNS lookups. It was time to re-examine their DNS strategy to guarantee both speed and reliability.
In response to these challenges, Catchpoint partnered with IBM to implement IBM NS1 Connect®, a robust and flexible DNS solution. The collaboration was driven by several key factors, including the platform’s global DNS performance and its capability to handle high volumes of traffic reliably.
Catchpoint’s transition to NS1 Connect was smooth and efficient, with hands-on onboarding and minimal disruption to operations. The company opted for a dual-instance setup, which involved combined the solution’s hosted and shared services to help ensure redundancy and reliability—even when using web application firewalls (WAFs) and content distribution networks (CDNs). Integration with the NS1 Connect API for infrastructure inventory tracking further streamlined operations. Additionally, the service met all of Catchpoint’s requirements for data measurement.
Catchpoint also successfully implemented traffic steering through filter chains and dedicated DNS services, which proved to be invaluable and significantly enhanced the responsiveness and resilience of their IPM platform.
This approach not only improved resilience but also enabled Catchpoint to use their own monitoring data for intelligent traffic steering in the future.
Following the implementation of NS1 Connect, Catchpoint witnessed substantial gains in speed, resilience and flexibility—all critical factors for a company whose business depends on real-time performance data. The collaboration with IBM enabled Catchpoint to strengthen their digital infrastructure, ensuring consistent, optimal performance and reliability.
As a result, the company is now better positioned to deliver high-quality services to their clients while maintaining cost efficiency and operational effectiveness. NS1 Connect has a varied infrastructure and offers flexible deployment across tier 1 data centers, cloud environments or other instances. Health checks embedded in filter chains also help guarantee that DNS responses point to viable services, reducing downtime risk and enhancing customer experience.
Moreover, Catchpoint’s partnership with IBM supports their ongoing digital transformation journey, providing the agility and scalability needed to adapt to future challenges and opportunities in the evolving landscape of internet performance monitoring.
Digital enterprises turn to Catchpoint’s IPM platform and expertise to proactively identify and resolve issues across the internet stack before they impact customers, workforce or digital experiences. The Internet Relies on Catchpoint for their unparalleled visibility and far-reaching insights into the Internet.
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Examples presented as illustrative only. Actual results will vary based on client configurations and conditions and, therefore, generally expected results cannot be provided.