Dyn (company) explained

Dyn, Inc.
Type:	Private
Fate:	Acquired by Oracle Corporation, becoming the Oracle Dyn Global Business Unit
Location:	Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.
Products:	Internet intelligence, data traffic management, domain registration, dynamic DNS, geodns, web application security

Dyn, Inc. was an Internet performance management company that also dealt with web application security, offering products to monitor, control, and optimize online infrastructure, and also domain registration services and email products. The company was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2016.^[1] It began operating as a global business unit of Oracle in 2017.

History

Dyn was created as a community-led student project by Tim Wilde during his undergraduate studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.^{[2] [3]} Eventually, Wilde, the founder, brought in Jeremy Hitchcock and Tom Daly as partners. Dyn enabled students to access lab computers and print documents remotely. The project then moved toward Domain Name System (DNS) services. The first iteration was a free donation-based dynamic DNS service known as DynDNS.^[4] The project required $25,000 to stay open and raised over $40,000.^[4]

The donation-based model continued until 2002 and ended with a launch of "donator-only" DNS services.^[5] Later, a premium service called the DynECT Managed DNS Platform became available in 2008,^[6] with the hiring of Kyle York, Gray Chynoweth and Cory von Wallenstein, as the business began to scale.

Pre-acquisition (2011–2015)

• 2011: Dyn opened an office in London, and eventually moved its EMEA headquarters to Brighton.^[7] In the same year, Dyn opened new headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire, United States.^[8]
• October 2012: Dyn completed a Series A round of venture capital funding totaling US$38 million from North Bridge Venture Partners.^[9] Prior to the investment from North Bridge, the company had been self-funded.^[10]
• August 2013: Dyn launched its annual geek summer camp event, a business conference for the Internet performance industry.^[11]
• April 2014: Dyn announced the discontinuation of its free hostname services effective May 7.^{[12] [13]}
• September 2014: Dyn Internet Intelligence, a SaaS-based product,^[14] was launched.

2016 attack

See main article: 2016 Dyn cyberattack. On October 21, 2016, Dyn's networks were attacked three times with a distributed denial-of-service attack, causing major sites including Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, Amazon.com, Netflix, Spotify, RuneScape, Quora, and Dyn's own website to become unreachable via the URL (although most sites may have been available via IP address manually or through a maintained hosts file).^{[15] [16] [17]}

Acquisition by Oracle

• May 2016: Dyn obtained further equity funding of $50 million from Pamplona Capital Management;^[18] total funding was $100 million. The company had scaled to approximately $100 million in annual recurring revenue prior to its acquisition by Oracle.^[19] Dyn launched its platform for Internet performance management.
• October 2016: Colin Doherty was appointed the company's CEO.^[20]

Oracle Dyn Global Business Unit
Type:	Division
Location:	Nashua, New Hampshire, U.S.^[21]
Products:	Internet intelligence, data traffic management, domain registration, dynamic DNS, geodns, web application security

• November 21, 2016: Dyn announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Oracle Corporation.^{[22] [23] [24]}
• June 2018: Oracle released the Internet Intelligence Map, a free tool that provides data about worldwide Internet traffic and disruptions.^[25] The map uses the Internet Intelligence technology Oracle acquired from Dyn.^[26]
• June 2019: Oracle announced Dyn's Managed and Standard DNS services would be shutting down in May 2020; this date was later extended to May 31, 2023.^[27]
  • The email sent to Standard DNS customers informed them that the Standard DNS service would be replaced by the "enhanced, paid subscription version" hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).^[28] Several customers publicly shared that they would not be migrating to OCI.^{[29] [30] [31] [32] [33]} In addition, a large number of Dyn's Manchester, New Hampshire employees were laid off, and the office space was put up for rent by the building owner.^[34] Many people were upset about this, including early Dyn adopters who were receiving "free for life" Standard DNS service, which was no longer being honored as of the transition to OCI DNS. "We truly appreciate your support throughout the years. While we are discontinuing the availability of services received at no cost, you may be surprised by how affordable the DNS service is within OCI along with outstanding capabilities with this service."^[35]

Dyn acquisitions

• 2010: EveryDNS, EditDNS, and SendLabs
• September 2012: the search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and ecommerce development parts of Incutio LTD,^[36] plus longtime DNS provider TZO.com^[37]
• January 2, 2013: web performance monitoring company Verelo^[38]
• May 13, 2013: mobile dashboard app startup Trendslide^[39]
• December 23, 2013: ReadyStatus, a tool that notifies customers of planned and unplanned service interruptions^[40]
• March 26, 2014: Nettica, a U.S.-based managed DNS provider
• May 20, 2014: Renesys, a specialist in monitoring the Internet to provide data about cloud services, connectivity and potential performance issues^[41]
• February 15, 2018: Oracle announced an agreement to acquire Zenedge, a Florida-based web application security company.^[42] The acquisition closed on March 5, 2018, and Zenedge became part of the Oracle Dyn Global Business Unit.^[43]

See also

• DNS hosting service
• Public recursive name servers
• Dynamic DNS
• List of managed DNS providers

External links

• Oracle Cloud DNS
• Dyn Community Forum
• Dyn's Help Center
• Dyn Status Updates
• Web site: Manchester feels the Dyn effect. 2019-09-12. New Hampshire Business Review. 2021-05-30.

Notes and References

1. Why Oracle Just Bought the Company That Brought Down the Internet. WIRED. 2017-11-19. en-US.
2. Web site: Worcester Polytechnic Institute School of Business . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151007020047/http://www.wpi.edu/academics/business/hitchcock.html . 7 October 2015 . 1 August 2013 . Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
3. Web site: Jeremy Hitchcock CEO of Dyn Inc. 27 October 2010.
4. Web site: Keohane. Dennis. King of the North – Dyn's Jeremy Hitchcock is building the pillar company of New England. https://web.archive.org/web/20140619010401/http://betaboston.com/news/2014/06/16/king-of-the-north-dyns-jeremy-hitchcock-is-building-the-google-of-new-england-boston-pillar/. dead. June 19, 2014. The Boston Globe.
5. Web site: Dynamic DNS Network Services -- Corporate -- Evolutionary Changes at DynDNS.org. 2002-10-05. 2016-12-31. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20021005004747/http://www.dyndns.org/corporate/changes.php. 2002-10-05.
6. Web site: Marsan. Carolyn. Migrating to cloud computing? Don't forget DNS. 11 December 2008. NetworkWorld.
7. Web site: Munford. Monty. Brighton tech scene moves beyond local startups. The Telegraph. 31 December 2013.
8. Web site: Bort. Julie. Dyn Is Turning New Hampshire Into A Startup Wonderland. Business Insider. 31 December 2013.
9. Web site: Why Jeremy Hitchcock Waited 11 Years To Raise $38 Million. Business Insider. 2015-10-05.
10. Web site: Alspach. Kyle. Dyn raises $38M in VC, gets Jason Calacanis on its board. Boston Business Journal. October 2, 2012. Oct 2, 2012.
11. Web site: Should You Host A User Conference?. Forbes.
12. Web site: Hutchinson. Lee. Dyn discontinues free DynDNS service to clean up its DDNS network. 8 April 2014. ars technica.
13. Web site: Hitchcock. Jeremy. Why We Decided To Stop Offering Free Accounts. Dyn.com.
14. Web site: Rayburn. Dan. Dyn Launches Internet Intelligence Tool With Unique Perspective On iOS 8 Internet Impact. Streaming Media.
15. Web site: Krebs. Brian. DDoS on Dyn Impacts Twitter, Spotify, Reddit — Krebs on Security. krebsonsecurity.com. 21 October 2016.
16. Web site: Massive web attacks briefly knock out top sites. BBC News. 21 October 2016. 21 October 2016.
17. News: Internet outage takes down Twitter, Netflix, PayPal and many of the web's most visited websites. TechWafer. 21 October 2016. 14 June 2019.
18. Web site: Dyn Secures $50 Million in Series B Equity Funding to Expand Global Internet Performance Management Market Opportunity, Announces New Platform Offering. May 10, 2016. www.businesswire.com.
19. News: 2016-05-11 . With $50 million in new funding, Dyn projects hundreds of new jobs . . 2017-11-19 . 2017-12-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031856/http://www.unionleader.com/With-50-million-in-new-funding-Dyn-projects-hundreds-of-new-jobs . dead .
20. Web site: Dyn Announces Colin Doherty As New CEO. https://web.archive.org/web/20161009002918/http://hub.dyn.com/h/i/293055012-dyn-announces-colin-doherty-as-new-ceo. dead. October 9, 2016.
21. Web site: Home . help.dyn.com.
22. Web site: Oracle acquires DNS provider Dyn, subject of a massive DDoS attack in October. TechCrunch. 21 November 2016 . AOL Inc.. 21 November 2016.
23. Web site: Oracle acquires DNS provider Dyn for $600 million USD . https://archive.today/20161129130044/https://www.lockssl.com/oracle-buys-dyn-600-million/ . dead . 29 November 2016 . Lock SSL . 24 November 2016 .
24. Web site: Oracle's Acquisition of Dyn: What it Means for the DNS & Traffic.... Imarc. 2016-11-30. NS1. en. 2019-06-25.
25. News: Introducing the Internet Intelligence Map. Madory. Doug. 2018-06-26.
26. News: Oracle launches its very own 'net threat map. 2018-06-26. en.
27. Web site: Dyn to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure—Enterprise Customer FAQ .
28. Web site: Oracle Dyn DNS Services Shutting Down in 2020 | Hacker News. news.ycombinator.com.
29. Web site: Sad to see @OracleCloud killing off the parts of #Dyn that so many of us used for the last decade. Three digit % price increases aren't in my budget. Happily, there are plenty of alternatives these days.pic.twitter.com/eleCwkxr7R. Toler. Ray. 2019-06-25. @raytoler. en. 2019-06-27.
30. apple4ever. 1143563842083008512. What a terrible experience that Oracle is giving Dyn customers: https://www.oracle.com/corporate/acquisitions/dyn/technologies/migrate-your-services/ ... First, they don't support dynamic DNS or DNSSEC. Second, the transfer is not automated! I'll be switching to @Cloudflare.. Matt. 2019-06-25. @apple4ever. en. 2019-06-27.
31. Web site: Migrating from Oracle Dyn to Constellix. constellix.com. 2019-08-28.
32. Web site: Oracle does-in Dyn, resets DNS services to cloud. Cooney. Michael. 2019-06-26. Network World. en. 2019-06-27.
33. Web site: Migrating from Oracle Dyn. Imarc. 2019-06-26. NS1. en. 2019-06-27.
34. Web site: Landlord marketing Oracle + Dyn space in the Millyard. Leader. Michael Cousineau. New Hampshite UnionLeader.com. 10 June 2019 . en. 2019-06-25.
35. Web site: Dyn to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure—E-Commerce Customer FAQ . 2019-06-25 . oracle.com.
36. Web site: United States : Dyn Acquires SEO/SEM & Ecommerce Development Arm of Incutio LTD. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924153946/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-301680436.html. dead. 2015-09-24.
37. Web site: Dyn acquires second firm in two weeks. 21 September 2012 . NH Business Review.
38. Web site: Taylor . Colleen . January 2, 2013 . Deadpool No More: After Planning To Shut Down, Verelo Is Acquired By Enterprise DNS Company Dyn . May 6, 2024 . TechCrunch.
39. Web site: Ungerleider . Neal . May 13, 2013 . Dyn Purchases Trendslide . May 6, 2024 . Fast Company.
40. Web site: Keohane. Dennis. Dyn Acquires ReadyStatus - Makes Its Innovative Internet Performance Solution Even Better. VentureFizz. 23 December 2013. 17 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170917171050/http://venturefizz.com/blog/dyn-acquires-readystatus-makes-its-innovative-internet-performance-solution-even-better#.Urh3uWxTKxU.twitter. dead.
41. News: Lardinois. Frederic. Dyn Acquires Internet Intelligence Service Renesys. 21 May 2014. TechCrunch. 21 May 2014.
42. Web site: Oracle Buys Zenedge. oracle.com. en-US. 2018-06-26.
43. Web site: Oracle Buys Zenedge. oracle.com. en-US. 2018-06-26.