Alibaba Cloud DNS integrates public cloud and IDC resolution capabilities to provide coverage for all scenarios, end-to-end resolution, and one-stop management. It offers enterprises a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and efficient platform for domain name resolution services. The platform flexibly adapts to multicloud, hybrid cloud, mobile application, and Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios. This helps enterprises reduce costs, improve efficiency, and build stable and reliable network environments.
Product architecture
Alibaba Cloud DNS consists of a cloud platform and an edge component.
The cloud platform provides efficient and stable domain name resolution services for public Internet users and cloud-based enterprises as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.
The edge component uses self-hosted DNS software and a mobile software development kit (SDK) to address resolution requirements for IDC, multicloud, and various application scenarios.
These two parts are integrated to create a cloud-edge architecture. This architecture enables centralized management and unified scheduling. It supports end-to-end resolution from the central cloud to edge nodes and from public clouds to private networks. You can use the Alibaba Cloud DNS console for one-stop configuration and monitoring. This approach significantly reduces O&M complexity and improves the stability and quality of network services.
Core product capabilities
Alibaba Cloud DNS provides capabilities and solutions for various scenarios, such as public domain name resolution, internal domain name resolution, DNS disaster recovery, LocalDNS, anti-hijacking for mobile and IoT devices, and self-hosted DNS.
Sub-product | Product introduction |
Public Authoritative DNS provides secure, stable, and scalable authoritative DNS services for the internet. It helps customers efficiently direct user traffic to the corresponding websites or application servers. | |
Internal DNS provides complete DNS resolution services for corporate intranet scenarios, such as Alibaba Cloud VPCs, self-hosted IDCs, and other cloud VPCs. It serves various clients like ECS instances, containers, and office terminals. | |
Global Traffic Manager uses health checks and multiple load balancing policies, such as polling, proximity-based routing, weighted, and sequential. It provides fault isolation and switchover for services. This helps enterprises build flexible and efficient active zone-redundancy and disaster recovery architectures. | |
Enterprise Recursive Gateway provides throttling protection for enterprises that use Alibaba Cloud Public DNS (223.5.5.5/223.6.6.6) for domain name queries. It ensures the stability of recursive resolution. It also prevents throttling triggered by internal crawlers or malicious requests from affecting normal domain name resolution. | |
Mobile DNS (HTTPDNS) provides stable, secure, accurate, and fast resolution services for terminals such as mobile apps and IoT devices. It supports protocols such as HTTP/HTTPS, DNS over HTTPS (DoH), and DNS over TLS (DoT). It can replace traditional LocalDNS to effectively avoid issues like domain hijacking, resolution latency, and update failures. This improves the resolution efficiency and security of terminals. |
Benefits
1. Cloud-edge integration for full-scenario resolution coverage
Alibaba Cloud DNS uses a cloud-edge architecture to cover all domain name resolution scenarios, from internal networks to the public Internet and from PCs to mobile devices. It provides efficient, stable, and secure resolution support for internal application access, outbound Internet access, external services, and application and IoT terminal scenarios.
Internal application access: For private network environments, Alibaba Cloud DNS provides authoritative resolution for custom domain names using PrivateZone or self-hosted DNS. This supports service discovery and interconnection for resources such as ECS instances, containers, and office terminals to ensure the stable operation of internal systems.
Outbound Internet access: Alibaba Cloud DNS provides a unified recursive resolution entry point for public domain names through the Enterprise Recursive Gateway. This accelerates Internet access for SaaS applications and web browsing. This also improves the efficiency and stability of employee Internet access and external system communications.
External service access: Alibaba Cloud DNS relies on Alibaba Cloud's globally distributed authoritative DNS nodes to provide high availability (HA), low latency, and high success rates for external services such as official websites, e-commerce platforms, and API operations. This ensures fast and stable access for public Internet users.
Application and IoT terminal access: HTTPDNS is designed for applications and IoT devices. It uses HTTP/HTTPS protocols to replace traditional LocalDNS, which effectively prevents DNS hijacking. This service provides precise scheduling and low-latency resolution to ensure the stable operation of mobile services.
2. Centralized cloud-edge management for efficient, cost-effective O&M
The unified Alibaba Cloud DNS console lets you centrally manage domain name resolution configurations for all scenarios. This provides a convenient one-stop O&M experience.
Centralized configuration management for higher efficiency: You can configure and adjust resolution rules for multiple scenarios, such as Public Authoritative DNS, Internal DNS, Enterprise Recursive Gateway, and HTTPDNS, from the Alibaba Cloud DNS console. You do not need to switch between multiple systems. This significantly reduces O&M complexity and improves operational efficiency.
Intelligent O&M for full control: The console provides real-time monitoring, intelligent alerting, log analysis, and data visualization. These features help you monitor resolution status, promptly detect anomalies, and quickly locate problems. This approach upgrades your O&M from reactive responses to proactive prevention.
Flexible and scalable architecture to adapt to business growth: The system architecture is highly scalable. You can flexibly add resolution policies and customize scheduling rules to accommodate your business growth and technological evolution. This ensures the long-term stability and efficient operation of your resolution system.
3. Open cloud-edge integration for unified multi-terminal management
Alibaba Cloud DNS provides flexible terminal access capabilities for enterprise users. It covers both the control plane and the service plane to help enterprises implement flexible and efficient DNS management and resolution services.
Control plane access: Alibaba Cloud DNS supports multiple connection types, such as the web console, OpenAPI, Terraform, and SDKs in multiple languages. This accommodates the operational habits and automated O&M requirements of different user roles, which improves the efficiency and flexibility of configuration management.
Service plane access: Alibaba Cloud DNS provides diverse resolution access solutions for different scenarios:
Local terminal access: You can deploy self-hosted DNS software to provide efficient and secure private resolution services for internal terminals.
Cloud terminal access: ECS applications in the cloud connect to PrivateZone by default within a VPC through dedicated IP addresses, such as 100.100.2.136 and 100.100.2.138. This enables automatic resolution of private domain names in the cloud.
Mobile terminal access: You can integrate the SDK to access the HTTPDNS service. This effectively avoids resolution issues that are common with traditional Local DNS and improves application access performance and stability.
Whether for configuration management on the control plane or resolution access on the service plane, Alibaba Cloud DNS provides convenient, unified, and scalable capabilities. It helps enterprises obtain a one-stop, end-to-end intelligent DNS service experience.