DNSBOX lights up Malawi Sky

ApplianSys is pleased to announce that Skyband – Malawi’s leading ISP – has purchased a DNSBOX solution to ensure reliable DNS services for its customers.

Skyband provides a range of internet and hosting services to hundreds of residential and corporate customers across Malawi.

A dedicated team at Skyband was responsible for managing between 600 – 1000 domains, all of which frequently required updating.  However, relying on a pair of Windows DNS servers to host customer domains caused two major headaches for the ISP:

Provisioning such a large number of domains was a manual process and extremely time consuming;

There was no way to integrate customer domains with the ISP’s billing systems or allow customers to manage their own domains.

To resolve these issues, CTO Asif Kassam sought a centralised solution that would not only deliver higher performance, but also allow the ISP to extend its service offering.

He found DNSBOX to be ideal and deployed a master-slave solution.  A secure DNSBOX300 ‘master’ holds all authoritative records for customers, and sends copies to a redundant pair of DNSBOX200 ‘slaves’.  The advantages for Skyband are:

Saving time, resource and money – DNSBOX’s automation and validation features eliminate the need to handle domains manually

Better service offering – by creating custom user groups with DNSBOX, Skyband’s customers can login, create and manage their own domains

Easy integration with existing systems – Using DNSBOX’s API integration functionality Skyband has the ability to integrate its existing billing system with DNSBOX300

These new capabilities have led to reduced administrative burden on Skyband’s technical team, who now have more time to work on other projects.

About

Established in 2000, Skyband provides MPLS, Broadband, WiMAX, Wifi, VSAT, Hosting and other internet services to customers in 27 districts across Malawi.  It has offices in Blantyre and Lilongwe.

The ISP started as a dial-up ISP in 2000, and it is now a communications service provider with its own 4G & MPLS Networks in Malawi.  It also owns fibre routes and Points of Presence (POPs) in London and Johannesburg.