Building DNS GSLB with BlueCat 

From the beginning, we knew that building a DNS-based Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) solution required more than just engineering—we needed real-world insight from the people who run the networks every day. So we turned to you, our community!

Through surveys and feedback from over 50 organizations across industries and geographies, you helped us zero in on what matters: the importance of prioritizing DNS responses based on network topology and health check results, the need for flexible support of both external and internal services, and the growing demand for compatibility with hybrid-cloud environments. You confirmed what we suspected – DNS reliability, integration, and performance is impacted on how close we are to the network edge – but the cost of GSLB is the biggest barrier to making this a true reality. We believe that Edge Service Points can solve that problem for DNS GSLB!

We already know powerful, practical ways you're doing DNS GSLB with an array of existing application GSLB solutions:

• Disaster Recovery Failover: With real-time health checks, queries fail over automatically to a healthy region—no config changes, no waiting.
• Application-Specific Routing: Different DNS rules for HR tools vs. dev tools, even within the same network, giving each app the path it needs.
• Policy-Driven Geo Control: Prioritize internal traffic based on subnet, region, or business unit—while still serving apps globally.

These aren’t just clever configurations—they’re mission-critical use cases you must have a solution for. And now we want to keep building to support even more use cases that exist for DNS.

Our upcoming Layer 8 Lounge is more than a show and tell—it’s a thank-you and an open invitation. We’re gathering as a community to learn where we can improve and explore how we bring load balancing and DDI teams closer together.

Because let’s face it: smarter DNS traffic control shouldn’t come at the expense of clarity, control, or cost. Together, we’re not just moving DNS GSLB to the edge—we’re moving it into the future of what we are building at BlueCat.

Join Ali Saleh, PM and Mark Mikhail, PMM at the Layer 8 Lounge for a casual demo and discussion
Bring your questions, your success stories, and your load balancing counterparts. Let’s keep building this—together.

If you’re interested and would like to register we would love to see you there. Register here.