Caching DNS is the first IP service users touch when they browse the Web, watch a video, send an email, or make a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone call. While most users don’t realize it (and should never have to), those simple website names all have to be converted to IP addresses for the Internet to work. That’s a complex job when you consider it takes trillions of network transactions moment by moment to make the Internet work.

Vantio™ Caching Platform

Vantio™ is our flagship product and is the best caching DNS system on the market. In only four years on the market, this in-network, software only, caching DNS platform already provides a faster, safer and more useful Internet experience for more than 500 million fixed broadband and mobile network users around the world. Its design advantages are many. To put it briefly, it features a policy layer, advanced security, specialized query handling, and a rich information intelligence layer. These features combine to allow network owners to leverage DNS for more than just mere query handling, improving service quality, usefulness, and safety for all users. Vantio can be deployed quickly and easily on existing hardware without any changes to the network architecture.

How Vantio Works

Vantio was built to be the most reliable, highest performance caching DNS system on the market. To begin with, we made a simple, yet powerful design decision unique to Nominum— to create a special-purpose caching DNS system. We recognized that separating the recursive (caching) DNS functions from the authoritative DNS functions would allow specialized query processing and support database architectures that could be used to achieve the greatest possible performance and security.

Vantio is more than a just a high performance caching DNS server—it is a complete system. Over the last 4 years, we’ve added several additional software layers to Vantio, each of which performs a unique function to secure the server, protect the network, safeguard users, enable new services, allow real time monitoring, and dynamically integrate with our hosted services such as NavAssist™ and SKYE℠ Network Protection Service via Vantio-based components of our revolutionary and truly unique Nominum Analytics System. Each functional layer includes several features that make Vantio the Intelligent DNS standout in comparison to any caching DNS server.

The policy layer is comprised of optional software modules, each of which enables a specific service or class of service. These modules are optimized to work in conjunction with our hosted services, offering network owners the promise of dynamic system improvement.

All Vantio software can be managed remotely without impacting system performance or requiring a system restart or flush when changes or updates are necessary. On top of that control layer is a series of security defenses, including a one-step upgrade path to full DNSSEC support. Vantio also offers a robust data logging function, which provides you a real-time view into key network activity and can send Real-Time Alerts to a variety of event management consoles.

Vantio takes advantage of iView, a Hosted Network Service that provides network intelligence on demand by leveraging specific elements of the embedded Nominum Analytics System. iView uses a layered architecture implemented on top of Vantio software to enable advanced processing capabilities for data aggregation, filtering, and aging. Embedded data analysis capabilities in Vantio feed a highly visual user interface, that makes it simple for network owners to maximize network, application and DNS security, performance and reliability.

Vantio Modules

To complement our Vantio Caching Platform, the following modules are value-added services with enhanced capabilities:

Vantio MDR™

There’s a lot of bad stuff out there on the Internet that can harm both your network and users themselves. Vantio Malicious Domain Redirection (Vantio MDR™) not only helps sever the back door communication lines used by the bad guys to control unsuspecting users’ computers, it also can keep users from straying into the bad guy sites in the first place. Learn More

Vantio NXR™

It’s all too easy to mistype domain names into your browser address bar. And when you do, nothing can be more confusing and annoying when you receive that cryptic ‘404 error’ message. Who knows what that means anyway? Vantio Non-Existent Domain Resolution (Vantio NXR™) makes it simple for users to reach intended destinations on the Web quickly. Users are greeted with highly relevant search results and are guided to their intended destinations with a click. Learn More

Vantio UAR™

Vantio User Access and Remediation (Vantio UAR™) provides a handy mechanism for Network Owners to inform their users of critical information. Nasty stuff on your PC? Need a quick and easy way to provide service notices to users? Vantio UAR enables a ‘virtual pit stop’ to get users back up and running in no time. Learn More