RcodeZero DNS is celebrating its 15th anniversary in April – marking a journey defined by continuous improvement, strong customer focus and steady international growth. What began as a small internal project to secure Austria’s .at TLD infrastructure has evolved into a globally trusted Anycast DNS solution serving more than 30 million domains across hundreds of customers.

The origins of RcodeZero DNS date back to 2010, when a small team of dedicated DNS experts and developers, led by Klaus Darilion and Alexander Mayrhofer, deployed a compact Anycast network with just six locations to safeguard the .at zone. It spanned key international hubs including Frankfurt, Warsaw, Dublin, Brussels, Seattle and New York. The success of this internal service quickly sparked a broader vision: If such a system could reliably serve internal needs for .at, why not offer it to other Top-Level Domain registries and organizations?

That vision materialized rapidly. By April 2011, Hungary’s ccTLD .hu became the first external customer, despite strong competition from significantly larger providers. This early success laid the foundation for steady growth. Within the same year, RcodeZero DNS expanded its customer base to include Internet Service Providers, establishing a foothold in the secondary DNS market. From the start, the team demonstrated a key strength: the ability to tailor solutions and integrate the service seamlessly into customers’ existing processes.

Strengthening security and reliability
Growth was not limited to customers alone: The infrastructure itself scaled quickly, expanding from six to nine locations within the first year, with additional sites in Los Angeles, Singapore, and Vienna. In 2012, the introduction of DNSSEC marked another major milestone, enhancing security by ensuring the authenticity and integrity of DNS, while keeping implementation as simple as possible for customers. Over the years, RcodeZero DNS has consistently invested in resilience and performance. The introduction of a second, fully independent cloud in 2016 provided additional redundancy and flexibility. This commitment to reliability became a decisive factor for major customers.

Winning trust of major registries
In 2018, the Dutch registry SIDN selected RcodeZero DNS for its extensive portfolio, including .nl, one of Europe’s largest TLDs. Key decision factors included European jurisdiction, strong data protection standards and the team’s technical expertise and flexibility.

Further validation followed in 2019, when EURid entrusted RcodeZero DNS with its .eu domains, adding several million more domains to the network. These partnerships underscore a core strength of the service: a deep understanding of registry requirements combined with the ability to continuously evolve the product.

Continuous improvement as a core principle
This philosophy of constant improvement is evident throughout RcodeZero DNS’s development and success history. In 2020, dedicated systems were introduced, allowing Secondary DNS customers to operate independently and increasing overall resilience. Additional security enhancements, including advanced DDoS mitigation, further strengthened the platform.

Subsequent years saw ongoing investments in infrastructure, such as the expansion of a larger network of servers with increased performance and capacity, as well as improvements like a redesigned web interface with enhanced usability and user management features.

Today, Secondary DNS customers benefit from more than 60 nodes worldwide across two independent clouds in two autonomous systems (AS) with 26 different providers. The network for TLD customers currently consists of a single cloud with over 50 nodes across 25 different providers. This represents a profound and continuously growing infrastructure designed to ensure maximum availability and performance.

Customer focus as a key differentiator
However, today the true differentiator lies beyond the number of nodes. At its core, RcodeZero DNS is built on constant optimization of the best possible routing and a strong service mindset. Whether through custom integrations, dedicated systems or continuous feature enhancements – listening closely to customer needs and translating them into tangible product development has been a guiding principle from day one. This close collaboration with customers is what drives innovation and ensures long-term success.

Looking ahead: Innovation starts with listening
Fifteen years on, this approach continues to pay off – with more than 30 million domains under management and a diverse international customer base, including TLD registries, ISPs and enterprises around the globe. Especially for organizations with particularly critical and sensitive domains and online services such as public authorities, operators of critical infrastructure (e.g. energy and utilities), media companies or financial institutions, RcodeZero DNS has established itself as a reliable and forward-thinking partner.

Looking ahead, the mission remains unchanged: to continuously refine and evolve the service in close collaboration with customers. Because at RcodeZero DNS, product development starts with listening.