Consistent Service But Account Management is Cumbersome Since IBM Acquisition
What do you like best about the product?
I've found NS1 DNS services to be consistent over the last 10 years at two companies.
What do you dislike about the product?
Account management and renewal is VERY cumbersome because of the acquisition with IBM. I was hassled about billing by someone on LINKEDIN about our bill which is extremely insecure. If my LI account had been compromised, a bad actor could have misled the IBM employee and caused an outage affecting over ONE MILLION medical patients.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Website redirects are working very well and the NS1 API is really easy to use.
Seamless DNS Management with Robust API
What do you like best about the product?
I find the API feature of IBM NS1 Connect to be the most useful, as it uses Standard REST API for managing DNS resources and making changes like adding, removing, and modifying DNS records. We successfully migrated to NS1 seamlessly using the API import features, which was a big plus.
What do you dislike about the product?
Analytics of DNS queries, answers, source IP address hits to DNS zone/record-related info is not present. If that data could have been provided it would help a lot.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
IBM NS1 Connect acts as an authoritative DNS, handles traffic steering, and uses a REST API to manage DNS resources efficiently.
Robust DNS Solution with Some UI Hiccups
What do you like best about the product?
I really like that IBM NS1 Connect supports the full range of DNS record types, making it easy to manage redirects, aliases, CNAMEs, and multiple A records. The clear UI is a big plus, and having access to metrics about query count helps us understand how clients are using DNS, which is crucial for making decisions about deleting records. The fantastic uptime is essential, especially since downtime could significantly impact our revenue. Also, the initial setup was very easy.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are some UI bugs, the hydration pattern in the UI is a bit flaky, and records can be slow to load.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use IBM NS1 Connect for all our customer-facing DNS, supporting e-commerce and hosting domains. It supports all DNS record types for redirects and aliases, provides metrics for query analysis, ensures fantastic uptime, and prevents revenue impact from DNS downtime.
Reliable, Secure, and User-Friendly DNS Management
What do you like best about the product?
I would say I really appreciate the ease of use of IBM NS1 Connect and the added features it has developed over time. The sustainability and security it provides make it a dependable tool for us. Anytime I need to make an entry for compatibility with third-party entities, it's always seamless. I never really need to contact support because there's always a knowledge-based article available, and the user interface is so easy that it's hard to make a mistake.
What do you dislike about the product?
I have no complaints or dislikes about NS1 Connect.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use IBM NS1 Connect to manage DNS records for connectivity with multiple third-party entities. It's dependable and simplifies ensuring compatibility, making connections seamless for transactions, website access, and API links.
NS1 Makes DNS Automation Easy with a DNS-as-Code Approach
What do you like best about the product?
NS1 was built for automation. Unlike older legacy systems where you might have to click through a dashboard to update records, NS1 treats DNS as code.
What do you dislike about the product?
I didn’t find anything wrong with NS1. It’s reliable and good.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Infrastructure as Code (IaC): It integrates seamlessly with Terraform and Ansible.
Real-time Updates: Changes propagate globally within seconds, which is especially important during emergency failovers or blue-green deployments.
Real-Time Traffic Steering That Reroutes Before Alerts Fire
What do you like best about the product?
The real-time traffic steering based on actual endpoint health is what keeps us loyal, when something goes down, NS1 reroutes traffic before our monitoring alerts even fire.
What do you dislike about the product?
The monitoring capabilities feel native, like you end up relying on third-party observability tools to fill gaps that really should be built into the platform itself.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Managing traffic across multiple cloud regions used to mean constant manual DNS updates whenever an endpoint went unhealthy, NS1 Connect handles that automatically now, keeping our applications available without anyone having to jump in at 2am. The benefit has been tangible: fewer outages, faster recovery times, and an ops team that finally sleeps through the night.
Finally, a DNS Solution That Keeps Up With Our Scale.
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about IBM NS1 Connect is its intelligent traffic routing, the Filter Chain architecture gives you surgical control over how DNS queries are resolved, something you simply don't get with conventional DNS providers.
What do you dislike about the product?
The pricing structure can feel opaque for smaller teams, and the learning curve around Filter Chain configuration can be steep without dedicated onboarding support.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Before NS1 Connect, managing DNS traffic across regions was a constant firefight, now it practically runs itself, and our team can finally focus on building rather than troubleshooting.
Powerful Monitoring Platform with Helpful Tutorials and Strong Integrations
What do you like best about the product?
I love this platform for its various useful tutorials available which might be of great assistance given the complexity of this platform. Other than this I love this platform for its capacity to keep connecting even when there is no monitoring data. The capacity of this platform to control the traffic of the site is also outstanding. I also feel that the interface is user-friendly. The capacity of this platform to create zones by utilizing more DNS provider improves the reliability and usability of this platform.
In this platform there are multiple monitors which increases the potential of this platform. The ability of this platform to integrate with various data sources like ThousandEyes, DataDog etc is worth mentioning.
This platform also have SSL/TLS certificates allowing HTTPS to redirect. The capability of this platform to connect external network connection is also commendable. I like the facility of this platform where notifier list can also be created. Having said this I also feel that the security provided by this platform is reliable. The URL redirect facility provided by this platform also ensures the stability of the sites normally or even during migration. This allows better user experience of the one browsing the site.
The platform capability to schedule a report is also really good with options provided in which type of file, when and how the report will be generated.
What do you dislike about the product?
I love the most part of this platform but I have to admit that the complexity of this platform is also there. The user needs to be trained and a professional knowing the stuff for efficient and effective handling of this platform. Other than this the price is also high but considering the utility of this platform it would be totally worth it but it may not easily come under the budget.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
This platform increases the reliability of the DNS. It resolves the traffic issue which is also paramount in operation. It really increases efficiency of the connectivity. It is also worth mentioning about the reliability of the security provided by this platform. With the robust ecosystem of this platform , The platform becomes more reliable and powerful.
Night-and-Day DNS Automation with IBM NS1 and Reliable Traffic Steering
What do you like best about the product?
IBM NS1 We moved from a mix of manual DNS configs and scripts into NS1, and the difference has been night and day. The API integrations with our AWS stack and Terraform setup made it easy to connect with what we alreday had in portal and traffic steering based on heath checks has been very reliable, especially during peak traffic. I also appreciate how fastest changes propagate globally which makes day to day updates feel much smoother. Its been a strong fit for an automation heavy team like ours.
What do you dislike about the product?
IBM gets the data, but slicing it the way we want sometimes require external tools, we’re using integrations with Datadog and Kubernetes and NS1 fits neatly into that ecosystem.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We no longer have to think about DNS during deployments. Routing and failover are handled smoothly, which has helped reduce incidents during releases and since making the switch, we’ve also had fewer outages that affect users.
Smart routing has improved uptime and performance and enables real-time automated traffic control
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for IBM NS1 Connect is to improve user experience. It offers smart routing which helps sites to be reliable and performance to get improved. In my organization, the use case was huge traffic and it was very necessary for the system to be responsive all the time.
IBM NS1 Connect is very useful when system demand is very high and more traffic is coming. It's very efficient and gives the best return on investment.
I also use IBM NS1 Connect in managing DNS for the applications with ServiceNow. Low latency and smarter traffic routing are one of its key features that impressed me a lot. This helped to address the automation challenges that I come across when working with tools such as SNOW and needs a reliable service delivery across all environments.
What is most valuable?
The best features IBM NS1 Connect offers, in my opinion, are real-time monitoring, intelligent traffic routing capabilities, and being API driven.
The intelligent traffic routing and API-driven features of IBM NS1 Connect have helped my team by allowing routing based on user location, endpoint switching based on latency, and DNS response time. Additionally, IBM NS1 Connect has API integration.
IBM NS1 Connect positively impacts my organization by making our website load faster and enhancing the user interface to be more intuitive and user-friendly. It's very economical and cost-effective. I also love it because it saves time through automation, saving around 30% to 35% of our time and also saving man-source. Our application uptime has improved by 40% to 45%. Although there have been a few outages, the service uptime has significantly improved our trust with clients. It is very cost-effective and affordable, hence providing a great return on investment.
What needs improvement?
To improve IBM NS1 Connect, I suggest additional monitoring services should be added in the dashboard and DNS timeout issues should be resolved.
Furthermore, the user interface of IBM NS1 Connect could be made more friendly for less technical users to enable easier usage.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for the past six years and seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
IBM NS1 Connect is very stable. I have not experienced any downtime or lagging.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
IBM NS1 Connect's scalability is very good. It has managed to handle all my organization's growth.
How are customer service and support?
I think IBM NS1 Connect's customer support is great, very responsive, and always proactive, so I do not see any other improvement needed on this tool.
The customer support of IBM NS1 Connect is one of the best I have been able to reach out for. They are very proactive and supportive, available 24/7.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Amazon Route 53. While both IBM NS1 Connect and Amazon Route 53 are DNS services, they differ in focus and strength. IBM NS1 Connect is a cloud DNS service designed for complex traffic routing, application performance, and reliability, while Route 53 is a more general-purpose DNS service offering domain registration, routing, and health checks, often used with the AWS ecosystem.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing of IBM NS1 Connect has been that it is one of the most cost-effective tools and very affordable.
I have seen a return on investment with IBM NS1 Connect, as application uptime has improved by 40% to 45%. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing traffic steering, such as dedicated DNS which offers a separate solution network for authoritative DNS, ensuring maximum uptime even in the face of outages. I love it also because it utilizes real-time metrics and automated DNS routing decisions to optimize traffic distribution and ensure resilience.
What about the implementation team?
I purchased IBM NS1 Connect through the AWS Marketplace.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with IBM NS1 Connect, as application uptime has improved by 40% to 45%. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing traffic steering, such as dedicated DNS which offers a separate solution network for authoritative DNS, ensuring maximum uptime even in the face of outages. I love it also because it utilizes real-time metrics and automated DNS routing decisions to optimize traffic distribution and ensure resilience.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing of IBM NS1 Connect has been that it is one of the most cost-effective tools and very affordable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing IBM NS1 Connect, I evaluated other options such as Azure DNS and Cloudflare DNS.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using IBM NS1 Connect is that it is very suitable for businesses requiring high application availability, improved performance, and advanced traffic steering capabilities, especially in complex multi-cloud environments, as it ensures maximum uptime. Nevertheless, it's also less appropriate for smaller teams without DNS expertise or those with basic DNS needs where a simpler, less feature-rich solution might suffice.
IBM NS1 Connect has allowed for customizable and easily configurable traffic steering based on factors such as performance, cost, and reliability, thus ensuring optimal application performance, giving more power to the user. I would rate this product a 9 overall.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
