SSAC Comment on gTLD Registry Failover Plan

[Patrick Jones <patrick.jones@xxxxxxxxx>]

Per authorization from Steve Crocker, I am forwarding the comment below from 
SSAC on the gTLD Registry Failover Plan.

------ Forwarded Message
From: Steve Crocker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 08:31:30 -0700
To: Patrick Jones <patrick.jones@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <ssac@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: SSAC response re Registry Failover Plan

Patrick,

Thank you for the informative presentation on the gTLD Registry Failover Plan.  
We believe the plan is implementable and that testing will help confirm whether 
it is comprehensive (complete).

Several committee members had a number of questions related to name service as 
well as business continuity.  SSAC members are curious to understand what if 
any efforts have been made to define "continuity metrics."  For example, how 
long will name service persist following each form of failure?  Other members 
are curious about "accountability metrics."  For example, what services and 
what service levels can a registrant expect on the provisioning side, i.e. 
changes of registration record and DNS configuration changes?

We realize these questions focus primarily on what appears to be absent from 
the plan rather than what is present.  We recognize that considerable time and 
energy has been invested by ICANN and registry staff to deliver the current 
plan.  We also appreciate that SSAC has not been continuously involved in many 
prior deliberations and thus it is quite possible these matters we might have 
already been discussed and dismissed.  We thus look forward to and wish to 
remain informed regarding live testing with registries and are available for 
consultation on matters you may wish to call to our attention.

Again, thank you for presenting to SSAC.  Such presentations are valuable to 
our committee because they provide members who have limited volunteer time to 
quickly come up to speed on subjects that they might otherwise be unable to 
consider.  At the risk of placing more work on your shoulders, please provide 
presentations on this subject as early as possible in future delivery (review) 
cycles.  I think the effort will prove rewarding.

Regards,


Steve Crocker
Chairman, SSAC