Boost reliability and elevate user experience with IBM NS1 Connect
Accelerate and safeguard your DNS performance
IBM® NS1 Connect® delivers a fully managed cloud DNS service with anycast routing, robust APIs, DDoS defense, HTTPS redirection and uptime monitoring. Maximize performance, minimize downtime and stay secure with automated failover, secondary DNS support and real-time alerts.
Key features
Global anycast DNS
Minimized DNS latency and improved application performance with a managed DNS backbone designed for peak global performance.
- Delivers a managed DNS infrastructure with worldwide points of presence: 26 point of presence (PoP) locations on 6 continents.
- Routes queries to the closest location for minimal latency and high availability.
- Absorbs traffic spikes effortlessly through global distribution.
Flexible DNS API
Integrate your managed DNS operations seamlessly with powerful APIs, ensuring smooth DevOps workflows and error-free automation.
Integrates managed DNS with Terraform®, Ansible® and other tools for effortless zone creation and policy updates.
Enables you to automate provisioning to reduce manual workloads and enhance agility.
Supports real-time DNS changes and consistent deployments.
Simplifies DevOps pipelines across your entire DNS environment.
Delegate DNS management to individual application teams with custom middleware solutions.
DDoS resiliency
We ensure continuous DNS availability through a layered approach, preventing DNS disruptions even under the largest DDoS events.
- Over-provisioned PoPs absorb up to 50× normal load, curbing large volumetric DDoS surges.
- Protocol filtering drops non-DNS packets, blocking reflection and amplification exploits.
- The Trex engine handles random query floods, ensuring DNS uptime even during high-traffic events.
HTTPS redirects
Combine managed DNS with secure URL forwarding to maintain brand consistency, privacy and optimal SEO value.
Handles secure redirects through managed DNS integration.
Manages certificates and HTTPS configurations automatically.
Automates certificate renewals and DNS record updates.
Preserves consistent branding and boosts SEO.
Uptime monitor
Stay proactive with real-time health checks and seamless failover to your secondary DNS server backup solution.
- Continuously evaluate endpoint health by using customizable health checks.
- Always sends instant alerts when services degrade or go offline.
- Automatically reroutes traffic to healthier endpoints by using traffic steering for seamless failover.
Grade up with add-ons
Boost performance and protection with these DNS add-ons, available for purchase with a Premium account. Pricing is based on your specific needs.
Add a single-tenant, redundant DNS layer for enhanced protection and performance. Isolate your DNS from shared networks to minimize downtime and risk.
Experience up to 3x faster performance for users in mainland China with optimized delivery that accounts for the impact of local internet challenges.
Steer users to the best-performing paths through real-time internet telemetry. Improve load times and availability by using Real User Monitoring (RUM).
Get full visibility into DNS behavior with real-time traffic analytics. Detect anomalies and misconfigurations before they impact users or uptime.
Give your network's DNS performance a closer look
Explore IBM and Catchpoint's study on DNS performance across the globe and compare different authoritative DNS providers.
FAQ
IBM NS1 Connect improves DNS performance by combining intelligent traffic management, real-time monitoring and highly reliable infrastructure to ensure fast, resilient and optimized delivery. It leverages a global anycast network with 26 points of presence (PoPs) across six continents to minimize latency and ensure fast, reliable DNS query resolution.
To get started:
- Try NS1 Connect for free by signing up for our free 30-day trial.
- Purchase IBM NS1 Connect by selecting the right pricing plan—view the pricing table.
- Contact sales to purchase the Premium plan.
- Get started by following the detailed steps in our documentation center.
Traffic steering is the process of dynamically and intelligently directing user requests to the best available endpoint—based on real-time conditions, business logic or performance goals. In NS1 Connect, traffic steering is a core capability that transforms DNS from a static naming system into an intelligent control plane for global application delivery.
Filter chains are a core component of NS1 Connect’s traffic steering system. They allow users to define a sequence of filters that process DNS queries and determine which endpoint should be returned. Each filter applies a specific logic—such as geographic location, latency, availability or weighted distribution—and passes the result to the next filter in the chain.
Yes. NS1 Connect is API-first, offering robust integrations with tools like Terraform, Ansible and other DevOps platforms. This enables:
- Automated zone creation
- Real-time DNS updates
- Streamlined CI/CD workflows
Yes. NS1 Connect can act as both a primary (authoritative) and secondary DNS provider. As a primary DNS, it hosts and manages your DNS zones. NS1 Connect can also act as a secondary DNS provider, allowing you to replicate zone data from a primary DNS server. Having a secondary DNS provides extra redundancy, improves resilience and ensures continuous DNS availability.
Yes, NS1 Connect includes a dedicated URL redirect service that supports both HTTP and HTTPS redirection. This feature enables use cases such as vanity URLs, domain forwarding and application migration. For HTTPS redirects, NS1 Connect automatically provisions and manages SSL/TLS certificates through Let’s Encrypt, ensuring secure and encrypted redirection.
Yes, NS1 Connect supports health check monitors that are integral to its DNS failover functionality. The health check monitors continuously evaluate the availability and responsiveness of endpoints (such as web servers or applications) by using various protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, TCP and ICMP.
NS1 Connect defends against modern DDoS attacks by using a multi-layered strategy that combines architectural resilience, intelligent filtering and scalable infrastructure.
NS1 Connect boosts SEO and AI search performance by ensuring your site is fast, reliable and secure—key factors for both traditional and AI-driven search rankings.
Yes, NS1 Connect is API-first and integrates with tools like Terraform, Ansible and CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated DNS and traffic management as part of DevOps workflows.
IBM Cloud® Sync is an add-on service for IBM NS1 Connect that automatically keeps authoritative DNS data aligned between NS1 Connect and Amazon Route 53. If you already run on Amazon Route 53, Cloud Sync lets you add NS1 Connect as a secondary DNS (or vice-versa) without changing your primary DNS workflow.