Overview
Overview of IBM NS1 Connect Managed DNS
Learn how IBM NS1 Connect delivers the authoritative DNS that makes applications and websites resilient, with intelligent traffic steering and multi CDN optimizaton.
Overview of IBM NS1 Connect Managed DNS
What is Traffic Steering
Simplify HTTPS Management
IBM NS1 Connect is a managed authoritative DNS and traffic steering service for applications deployed across AWS, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments. The service operates on a global anycast network spanning 26 points of presence (PoPs) across 6 continents and provides a 100% uptime SLA for DNS resolution.
It integrates with AWS services including Amazon EC2, Amazon EKS, Elastic Load Balancing (ALB/NLB), Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator and Amazon CloudWatch.
NS1 Connect enables DNS-based traffic routing using real-time data such as Real user Metrics (RUM), third party QoE data, CloudWatch metrics, health checks, latency, geographic location, and application performance signals.
The platform supports primary and secondary DNS configurations across AWS, other cloud providers, and on-premises infrastructure.
Key Capabilities
Available and Adaptable
- Global anycast DNS network with 26 PoPs across 6 continents for distributed query handling - 100% uptime SLA for DNS resolution.
- Traffic steering using real-time metrics, health checks, latency, and RUM data.
- Multi-cloud and multi-CDN routing across AWS, other cloud providers, and on-prem environments.
Agile and Secure
- API-First integration with infrstructure-as-a-service (Kubernetes, Ansible, Piulimi) Kubernetes ExternalDNS, AWS services.
- Observability integrations including Amazon CloudWatch, Datadog, Splunk, AppDynamics, Catchpoint, ThousandEyes, Pingdom.
- Security features including DNSSEC, TSIG, IP allow-listing, RBAC, SAML/SSO, AWS IAM read-only integration.
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification. SOC 2 Type II available via AWS Vendor Insights.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does NS1 Connect integrate with Amazon Route 53?
AWS and IBM offer two complementary architecture patterns that help customers expand their use of Amazon Route 53 while meeting advanced performance and resiliency requirements. With IBM Cloud Sync (an optional add-on), zones, records, traffic-steering metadata, and health checks synchronize bidirectionally between NS1 Connect and Route 53 without DNS zone-transfer (XFR). Cloud Sync also backs up NS1 Connect DNS configurations to a customer-owned Amazon S3 bucket for fast restore.
Which AWS services are used for traffic steering decisions?
NS1 Connect ingests Amazon CloudWatch metrics directly into Filter Chains, so DNS answers reflect the live health and performance of Amazon EKS, EC2, ELB, CloudFront, and other AWS resources. In addition, the Filter Chain engine ingests telemetry from third-party observability and RUM providers (Datadog, Catchpoint, ThousandEyes, AppDynamics), enabling consistent multi-cloud and multi-provider decisioning. Cloud Sync backs up NS1 Connect DNS configurations to a customer-owned Amazon S3 bucket.
What scale does the service support?
Service tiers support query volumes from tens of millions per month to custom volumes at higher scales. NS1 Essentials handles 30-80M queries/month; NS1 Standard handles 50M-1B queries/month; NS1 Premium is custom-priced and scales beyond 1B/month.
Can NS1 Connect be used as primary or secondary DNS?
Yes. It can function as either a primary authoritative DNS provider or as a secondary provider.
What security features are included?
The platform is ISO 27001 certificatied with SOC 2 Type II available on request. It supports DNSSEC, TSIG, IP allow-listing, RBAC, SAML/SSO authentication and AWS IAM integration.
Does NS1 Connect support multi-CDN routing?
Yes. It can route traffic across Amazon CloudFront and third-party CDNs based on performance using real-time RUM, CloudWatch, Catchpoint and ThousandEyes signals, including cost-aware and contract-aware shaping.
Does NS1 support multi-cloud and hybrid environments?
Yes. Traffic routing policies can be applied across AWS, other public clouds, and on-premises infrastructure. Customers commonly run NS1 Connect as the global DNS decisioning layer in front of workloads spanning multiple providers, with per-zone or per-record steering policies. Where Amazon Route 53 is also in use, IBM Cloud Sync (optional add-on) keeps zones, records, and steering metadata aligned bidirectionally without DNS zone-transfer (XFR).
How does it fit DevOps workflows?
NS1 Connect provides API access and integrates with Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi, and Kubernetes ExternalDNS integration for automatic DNS record management; webhooks and APIs for CI/CD pipelines.
Is a free trial available?
Yes. A 30-day free trial is available through AWS Marketplace.
Highlights
- Global anycast network: Primary and secondary DNS built with a fully redundant architecture at 26 locations to meet a 100% uptime SLA.
- Real-time DNS traffic steering using Real User Metrics (RUM), Amazon CloudWatch metrics, third party QoE data, latency, and health checks.
- DevOps ready integrations with EC2, EKS, ALB/NLB, CloudFront, Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi, Global Accelerator, Datadog, Splunk, ThousandEyes.
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Pricing
Free trial
Dimension | Description | Cost/12 months |
|---|---|---|
Essentials | Includes 30M queries 1000 records 1 Filter Chain 2 Monitors | $1,188.00 |
Essentials with Route 53 DNS syncronization | Includes 50M queries per month, 1000 records, 1 Traffic Steering Filter Chain, 2 Monitors, 1 Cloud Sync Connection | $3,288.00 |
Essentials Large Bundle | Includes 80M queries 1000 records 1 Filter Chain 2 Monitors | $4,188.00 |
Standard-50 | 50M Queries, 1000 Records, 1 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 2 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore | $4,188.00 |
Standard-150 | 150M Queries, 1000 Records, 3 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 7 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore | $9,426.00 |
Standard-250 with Route 53 DNS syncronization | Includes 250M Queries per month, 2000 Records, 25 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 25 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore, 1 Cloud Sync Connection | $22,006.80 |
Standard-500 | 500M Queries, 5000 Records, 50 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 50 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore | $31,096.80 |
Standard-1000 | 1Bn Queries, 10000 Records, 100 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 100 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore | $46,546.80 |
Standard-1000 with Route 53 DNS syncronization | Includes 1Bn Queries per month, 10000 Records, 100 Traffic Steering Filter Chains, 100 Monitors, 50 HTTPS Redirects, Spike Protection, Zone Backup/Restore, 1 Cloud Sync Connection | $47,446.80 |
The following dimensions are not included in the contract terms, which will be charged based on your usage.
Dimension | Description | Cost/unit |
|---|---|---|
Overage Rate Total Queries (Requests) | Overage Rate Total Queries (Requests) | $50.00 |
Overage Rate DNS Records | Overage Rate DNS Records | $75.00 |
Overage Rate Filter Chains (Resource Units) | Overage Rate Filter Chains (Resource Units) | $103.50 |
Overage Rate Monitors (Jobs) | Overage Rate Monitors (Jobs) | $3.45 |
Overage Rate China Requests | Overage Rate China Requests | $172.00 |
Steering Standard Interaction Overage | Steering Standard Interaction Overage | $20.39 |
GSLB Standard Interaction Overage | GSLB Standard Interaction Overage | $20.39 |
Steering Advanced Interaction Overage | Steering Advanced Interaction Overage | $32.39 |
GSLB Advanced Interaction Overage | GSLB Advanced Interaction Overage | $32.39 |
Enterprise Request Overage | Enterprise Request Overage | $8.27 |
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Self Service on All tiers including Free Trial
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Standard contract
Customer reviews
Intelligent traffic steering has boosted cloud performance and simplifies policy management
What is our primary use case?
I have worked on both deployment models of IBM NS1 Connect in the company's environment and in the clouds. I utilize IBM NS1 Connect 's Intelligent Traffic Steering feature.
What is most valuable?
The best benefits of using IBM NS1 Connect are the performance and availability of the product towards the cloud. When comparing the performance with other products, I believe it is above par. It is really helpful and gives me at least a 20 to 30% improvement in functionality.
We were able to increase the traffic with the help of the analytical tools, but they should be more user-friendly. That portion is a little bit complicated as of now, which comes as part of the product's default feature.
It is very easy to assess the impact of IBM NS1 Connect's policy management on my network operations. It is just a matter of configuring the normal network policies, so the configuration of the policies is very straightforward.
What needs improvement?
The aspect that needs improvement about IBM NS1 Connect is that the integration with AI is not seamless at this moment. That particular portion needs to be re-evaluated.
We were able to increase the traffic with the help of the analytical tools, but they should be more user-friendly. That portion is a little bit complicated as of now, which comes as part of the product's default feature.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for more than 15 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do not have that much exposure to this particular area, but I did not face any challenges regarding the platform's capability to manage DNS traffic and handle demand spikes.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is slow. You raise a PR, and then it takes several weeks for them to respond. It is a little bit slow.
How was the initial setup?
Implementation was seamless and I faced no challenges with it. It is easy.
It did not take much time to implement IBM NS1 Connect. It was a straightforward process for me and did not take too much time. It was very easy.
I would say the implementation takes about one day of actual work. The work spans months or several months, but the actual work is very easy. It is an organized product, so it is a straightforward process.
What about the implementation team?
I was part of the implementation process. It was done by me along with my team.
We were a team of 12 people who were involved in all of these activities.
We had a combination of engineers, administrators, and developers in the team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing cost is reasonable. When I compare it to other products, it is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I purchased IBM NS1 Connect through AWS Marketplace . We do use analytical tools built into the product. I rate this product 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Intelligent traffic steering has improved integration and customization but still needs faster updates
What is our primary use case?
My customers use IBM NS1 Connect 's intelligent traffic steering. Intelligent traffic steering helps optimize application performance as a client directly interacts with the IBM counterpart to integrate all components, and it is quite easy and user-friendly.
What is most valuable?
The best features in IBM NS1 Connect for me are basically the easy integration with other endpoint solutions.
I assess policy customization in IBM NS1 Connect as the greatest advantage that we observe in QRadar impacting our customer's network operations.
IBM NS1 Connect's API-driven architecture has helped my organization with digital transformation as it is an open standard. Architecture-wise, I can say it is a good integration, but few OEMs or solutions do not provide that capability of an API interface. For that, we need to build a custom connector, and there we are facing a problem.
What needs improvement?
I believe every product has room for improvement, and I found some weak sides in IBM NS1 Connect.
I think the support for upcoming technical updates in IBM NS1 Connect could be improved as they are not up to the mark, and their development or new enhancements are very slow.
We have found that the API interface is another area of improvement. We found a couple of scenarios where API was not supported by their point product, and we got stuck there. For that, we need some additional custom-built connector, and we found that there is a delay from IBM.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been familiar with IBM NS1 Connect for almost seven years.
How are customer service and support?
If I had to give a rating of technical support from IBM on a scale from one to ten, I would rate it seven to eight, so you can mention eight.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have not worked with DataStax Enterprise from IBM as it is a NoSQL solution.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of IBM NS1 Connect is actually quite easy to install.
I participate in the deployment process and was a part of the deployment team, and I led the team.
It actually takes three to four weeks to deploy, based on their environment.
What about the implementation team?
Overall, almost ten plus people were involved in the deployment and the implementation.
Those people involved in the deployment are technical support members; they are not developers as such, and they are implementers only, system integrators.
My company stands more like a system integrator. We are in partnership with IBM as a distributor and preferred integrator.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not overall satisfied with the license and cost for IBM NS1 Connect because my pre-sales team interacts on that part regarding pricing. My role is just to integrate and design solutions, so I am not looking into the commercial part.
I would rate IBM NS1 Connect in general at six to seven because all of the features are there, but the cost is quite high. Other competitors have offered a very low price compared to IBM, and that aspect is very tough for us to convince clients.
It is beneficial when I already implement the product, but that is after the fact. Before convincing a client, before implementation, or at the initial POC stage, it becomes a challenge because every time a cost factor comes into the picture. The customer or client always figures out that another OEM is providing this competitive cost and questions why not IBM.
What other advice do I have?
I am familiar with the IBM product line.
I actually know products such as IBM NS1 Connect or perhaps IBM Planning Analytics , but I am just working on QRadar only.
I also work with IBM NS1 Connect from time to time; earlier I used to work on that.
IBM NS1 Connect was purchased directly from the vendor, not through some other stores or AWS Marketplace .
Managing DNS traffic using IBM NS1 Connect has required some additional efforts from a development perspective to build new rules and correlation rules, but their rule engine and development support is quite good.
I have not used IBM NS1 Connect Analytics. My overall rating for this product is six out of ten.
Powerful Dynamic DNS Routing, But a Learning Curve for Complex Policies
One situation where it became especially valuable for us was during high-traffic fintech onboarding campaigns and transaction-heavy operational windows where traffic spikes could impact application responsiveness across regions. Instead of relying on static DNS behavior, NS1 Connect allowed us to route traffic dynamically based on latency, health checks, and infrastructure availability. That flexibility helped maintain much more stable user experiences during peak usage periods.
What stood out immediately was the speed and responsiveness of DNS changes. During infrastructure incidents or deployment rollouts, traffic policies could be adjusted very quickly without waiting through slower propagation cycles that we had experienced with older DNS setups. For customer-facing systems where uptime and response consistency directly affect onboarding and transaction completion rates, that operational agility made a real difference.
From a usability perspective, the platform balanced enterprise-grade functionality with a relatively clean operational experience, which helped engineering and infrastructure teams collaborate more effectively during incident handling and rollout planning.
Overall, IBM NS1 Connect delivered strong value by improving traffic reliability, operational flexibility, and infrastructure responsiveness across critical production systems.
Another challenge we experienced was around operational visibility during highly customized routing scenarios. The monitoring and analytics capabilities are strong overall, but when troubleshooting complex traffic behavior across multiple providers, regions, and failover policies, identifying the exact cause of routing anomalies occasionally required deeper manual analysis than expected.
From a UI/UX perspective, the platform is functional and infrastructure-focused, but some administrative workflows still feel more engineered toward experienced network teams than broader operational users. Teams unfamiliar with DNS operations faced a noticeable learning curve during onboarding, especially around advanced policy configuration and automation workflows.
The integrations with cloud and infrastructure ecosystems were valuable, but maintaining consistency across evolving deployment environments and automation pipelines required ongoing operational governance.
In one healthtech workflow, we were managing patient-facing appointment scheduling and teleconsultation systems that experienced highly uneven traffic spikes during specific hours and seasonal campaigns. Before implementing NS1 Connect, traffic routing was relatively static, so when one region or infrastructure cluster became overloaded, users started experiencing slower response times and intermittent service instability. IBM NS1 Connect helped us introduce dynamic traffic steering based on endpoint health and latency conditions, which improved platform responsiveness significantly during peak usage periods.
Another operational benefit came during infrastructure maintenance and unexpected outages. Previously, rerouting traffic during incidents required more manual intervention and slower DNS propagation handling. With NS1 Connect, failover decisions became much more automated and responsive, reducing disruption for end users accessing critical healthcare services.
We also used the platform in fintech-related environments supporting onboarding systems and transaction-heavy customer workflows across multiple cloud regions. During high-volume onboarding campaigns, traffic loads shifted unpredictably between regions, and maintaining low latency became important for customer conversion and operational reliability. NS1 Connect helped distribute traffic more intelligently across infrastructure endpoints instead of relying on rigid DNS policies.
A major advantage operationally was improved visibility into traffic behavior and infrastructure health. Engineering teams could proactively monitor routing conditions, endpoint performance, and failover events before issues escalated into customer-facing incidents.