"Sharing a single objective makes our partnership strong"

A new registration system for SIDN

Stakeholders and regulators have increasingly high expectations regarding the quality and continuity of our services. SIDN's existing domain registration system, DRS5, still works well, but managing and maintaining it are very time-consuming. DRS5 is not therefore future-proof. Yet developing and managing a new registration system independently is very expensive, time-consuming and risky. We've therefore joined forces with CIRA to jointly develop their existing system into one that both registries can use, which has cloud technology at its core but is entirely cloud-agnostic. At SIDN, we plan to use the new system primarily for .nl, but our partnership with CIRA has further ambitions. After migrating .nl, we'll explore the possibility of working together to make the registry platform available to other registries as a service.

Laying the foundations for collaboration

Over the last few months, CIRA and SIDN have laid the foundations for their collaboration and for development of the new registration system. A key initial step was to set up a single unified Fury team. "Here at CIRA, we've been working with Fury for some time, of course," explains Don. "However, the next phase of development depends on the involvement of appropriate specialists from SIDN as well. Direct links have therefore been created between SIDN's developers and our teams, so that they could get to know each other and share their knowledge. Fortunately, the teams on each side of the ocean had a lot in common in terms of the Agile Scrum methodology and the tools and technologies they used. So building connections went quickly. We also assembled a combined team of about 10 people with the right knowledge and skills to work out the details of how the partnership will function. The team had to consider all aspects of the collaboration, from legal and financial matters to operational and technical questions."

During the preparatory phase, most of the talks took place online. However, there were also in-person meetings at SIDN's offices in Arnhem and at CIRA's base in Ottawa, Canada. "Because of the time difference, there's only about 3 hours' overlap when live interaction is possible," says Chris. "So we have to make the best possible use of that time. The partnership formally began in April this year, but CIRA shared Fury's source code with us late last year, under special agreements. That allowed the team time to familiarise themselves with the code, experiment with it and put questions to their counterparts at CIRA. Over the last few months, we've also drawn up a development plan. The plan outlines the collaboration process, sets out the Agile methodology and provides a roadmap for development of the registration system. It also covers topics such as the communication channels we'll use, the reporting arrangements and how we'll manage risks and deal with other challenges."

Implementing the development plan

SIDN and CIRA are now embarking on the project's next phase: implementing the development plan. "For 2024, the main focus is on technical implementation," Chris continues. "That includes things such as getting the existing Fury system ready for generic cloud technology (so cloud native and cloud agnostic) and preparing for migration of the .nl data." Don adds: "How quickly we're able to do that will be influenced by the legal and security parameters, which could complicate and prolong the process. And, of course, CIRA and SIDN both have their own working methods, tools and software. For example, the use of Git for source code management and Jira for project management. To help us with challenges like that and simplify collaboration, we're setting up a shared online environment. A lot of time and discussion is involved upfront, but we anticipate significant benefits down the line."

In-person meetings remain important to the development process. "You can do a lot on the basis of online discussion, but you get more out of a meeting when everyone's in the same room," affirms Chris. "Especially when it comes to removing any stumbling blocks we might encounter along the way." Don makes the point that, wherever possible, in-person meetings are held at international gatherings that both sides would be attending anyway. "At the end of May, for example, both CIRA and SIDN had people at the CENTR meeting in Copenhagen. That provided us with a perfect opportunity for getting together." Chris adds: "We're also looking at the possibility of having our developers visit Ottawa as a way of getting to know CIRA and the development teams over there better."

A single, shared objective

Before the partnership, SIDN already had close ties with CIRA. We use CIRA's DNS service as one of our DNS anycast networks, for example. And, like us, CIRA is committed to fostering innovation and promoting a secure, open and stable internet. "Everyone involved in this project shares a single objective," says Don. "That makes our partnership strong. Of course, there'll be challenges and differences of opinion. But we're able to work through them, because we understand each other and have the same objective." "It feels as if we've known each other for years," adds Chris. "That's quite remarkable, given how physically distant we are. The reason, I think, is that we are so alike in terms of our vision, our expertise and the market we serve. The relationship works really well."

We envisage a long-term alliance between SIDN and CIRA, enabling both registries to seize market opportunities and accelerate technical advances. The intention is to have the new registration system ready for testing and integration in 2025. Migration can then take place and the system can be deployed for the .ca and .nl domains in early 2026. Ultimately, we hope to make the new registration system available to other registries around the world.

For more information about the CIRA Registry Platform, visit https://www.cira.ca/registry or contact Chris Faber at chris.faber@sidn.nl.