Secure and Stable

["John Wright" <jpwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As a .Net user who relies on .Net transactions, I urge ICANN seriously to 
consider issues other than the lowest bid. I am greatly concerned about the 
security and integrity of the .Net registry if it were to be managed by a firm 
that is straining under the load.  If a firm is operating at peak capacity, 
that's typically when mistakes are made, when a human error can become 
catastrophic, or when a simple hardware problem can become debilitating.  
Seeing as the registry costs are relatively insignificant, I and many of my 
colleagues are far, far more interested in keeping the .Net registry safe and 
secure.  We want to depend on it.  We don't want to worry about it or calculate 
registry down time into our business models.  We want predictability and 
confidence in the system.  I saw in a recent poll that "8 out of 10 registrars 
want the .Net registry to have experience managing at least the 5 million names 
.Net registry currently manages."  I would go further and say they should have 
experience managing a much larger volume, since .Net will undoubtedly grow, or 
hit high-volume spikes.  

I also urge ICANN to consider the dedication and competence of the bidders' 
home countries when it comes to fending off cyber attack.  Whether they are 
here or abroad, is the company in close touch with its government's cyber 
security officials?  How experienced are they in security measures and how well 
do they screen their employees?  Is there an anti-US bias?  Although you are an 
international body, I hope you take these questions seriously, since you must 
know that ICANN's credibility is also at stake here.

My own view is that VeriSign has performed flawlessly and at a very low cost.  
Change for the sake of change seems to be an incredibly irresponsible course of 
action for such an important registry.  I hope you take VeriSigns record, and 
these concerns, into account during the bidding process.