Case Study

Dynamic Network Services

The Dynamic Network Services (Dyn) for short, is a star up Tech company that provides website building and services to
Entrepreneurs, homes, small business and enterprise users. Dyn offers products to monitor, control, and optimize online
infrastructure, and also domain registration services and email products. Dyn went from a dorm-room start-up to a major technology
company with more than 350 employees, and clients that include Netflix and Zappos. The company was acquired by Oracle
Corporation in 2016, It began operating as a global business unit of Oracle in 2017 (Wiki, 2020).

The Dynamic Network Services (Dyn) was started in 2001 as a community-led student project by a group of students, Jeremy
Hitchcock, Tom Daly, Tim Wilde and Chris Reinhardt. during their undergraduate studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Originally,
Dyn enabled students to access lab computers and print documents remotely. The project then moved towards domain name system
(DNS) services.

Dyn story is not unlike those of many tech startups. The difference is that Dyn started during the dot-com boom, survived the bust,
thrived after the dust settled, and surges ahead today.

Deeply rooted as an Internet infrastructure company, it began with a focus on the domain name system (DNS) and continues to
expand by offering a wider range of infrastructure services. Since 2001, Dyn has served 4,000,000 homes, small businesses, and
enterprise users with a suite of DNS, e- mail, domain registration, and virtual servers. It provides customers—from the hobbyist to
the Fortune 500 enterprise with reliable and scalable IT services at competitive and predictable prices, through easy-to-use and
secure interfaces. Individuals and companies partner with Dyn to manage their website traffic, e-mail delivery, and uptime, and to
harden their internal and external network connectivity. It has built a rock-solid Global IP Anycast network using only top-level
providers and equipment and has provided it at an affordable price. “Uptime is the bottom line” for them and for companies like 37
signals, Zappos, HomeAway, Twitter, Audience-Science, and more who depend on Dyn to keep their Web presence and e-mail

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delivery at peak performance for their users. Like many of its Web 2.0 customers looking to monetize, Dyn Inc. has been there, done
that. It started as a free service based out of a college apartment, a couple of guys with a big idea. That service, then operating as
DynDNS.org, was a dynamic DNS service for a home user to host a website on a home computer or remote access back to a PC.
Over time, as the user base grew and became more demanding, Dyn turned to a donation- based service in an effort to stay afloat
and add complementary services. Later, Dyn transitioned to a recurring revenue software- as-a- service (SaaS) model with a suite of
IT services aimed at the home/SMB market. Fast-forward to 2005, and its story of maturation continues. Dyn initiated a customer
audit and mining exercise of the over 2,000,000 active DynDNS.com users at the time. From this, the company realized that many
high-prole corporations were using its consumer-grade service. This revelation, coupled with the simple fact that the premium,
externally managed DNS industry lacked options, encouraged Dyn to unveil a new brand, the Dynect Platform. Dynect was introduced
to the outsourced DNS market in the fall of 2007. Today, Dyn Inc. has served over 14,000,000 home/SMB users on the DynDNS.com
brand and has over 1,000 corporate/enterprise customers on its globally deployed Dynect Platform. The company has moved beyond
offering DNS exclusively and now offers e-mail delivery services through its SendLabs brand. The days of simple word-of-mouth
growth are long gone, and Dyn has become a much more proactive player. Not only does it provide services to consumers and
corporations, it also provides services to the government.

All federal government agencies that have the .gov designation were given until December 2009 to deploy DNS Security Extensions
(DNSSEC) for their domains. DNSSEC adds a layer of security to DNS so that computers can verify that they have been directed to
the proper server, preventing the most dangerous types of DNS attacks and cyber-hacking. Implementing DNSSEC is especially
critical for high-risk government sites because they are often targeted by cyberattackers and are expected by users to be safe. DNS
is the backbone of the Internet’s infrastructure. Without it, websites won’t work, period. Once hackers have control over a DNS server,
they have free reign to mislead and redirect Web users to unsafe territory. Due to the increase of companies reporting attacks of this
nature, it has now become more critical than ever to implement this additional layer of security at the DNS level. Government and
other critical industries such as banking, online retail, healthcare, and education are also prime candidates for DNSSEC, as they may
be a larger target for potential attackers. Pricing and credit decisions because technology changes rapidly from day to day, Dyn
experiences shorter product cycles than do companies that deal with tangible products. In a non-commoditized scenario, the company
finds it easier to be flexible with pricing. As a result, each customer requires different pricing strategies. Outliers those who are not
the average customer can be more demanding of services but are not more costly to the company because Dyn’s costs are fixed.

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Customers, however, are willing to pay a different rate when traffic and consistency are different. When demand goes up, prices go
up.

The new version of the company started with the new technologies and advancement in communication and network. The company
established a new version and strategy to be more competitive and offering more services to various types of customers including
individuals and enterprises.

“the new vision highlights that Technology is becoming human by design, and enterprises that prepare now will win
in the future. How people access and interact with information is radically changing as human-like, AI-powered
chatbots synthesize vast amounts of information and provide answers and advice.”

Apart of the new directions for the company is that the Pervasive Network is creating exciting new service opportunities for
Communications Service Providers (CSPs). While there is an almost infinite number of possible new revenue streams, individual
CSPs will initially need to focus on a few priority applications across consumer and enterprise markets. To lead the 5G race, CSPs
must not only invest in the capabilities of next generation networks, but also position themselves as partners in key verticals to secure
their place as providers of priority applications. Dynamic Network Services can assist CSPs in rapidly launching new software-driven
services that keep pace with customer desires and expectations, which will largely be shaped by the promise of next generation
network capabilities in the 5G ecosystem. Design, develop, deploy and market next-generation services portfolios that meet the
emerging needs of both consumer and enterprise customers in a cost-effective and efficient manner, while reducing time to revenue.
Unlock new growth by targeting and rapidly incubating the most promising software-driven services for B2B, B2C and B2B2X markets.

5G is opening the door to all possibilities of technology-enabled home services. CSPs can bring these together – including traditional
digital, as well as newer smart home, services – via one platform with fully integrated, highly personalized services. Dynamic Network
Services can outline a connected home network and product strategy to realize 'continuity of experience' for the consumer inside and
outside the home.

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CSPs can play a central role in offering cloudified new services, potentially including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service,
and Software as a Service. CSPs can help enterprises take advantage of the Pervasive Network’s capability to serve as the intelligent
hub connecting IoT with other aspects of the business. The company believes that with the new blooming of cloud services and
e-commerce enables many opportunities for future growth and provides promising paths for new and variety of services that can be
offered to different types of customers including enterprises and individuals specially with the new generation of 5 G services

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss some entrepreneurs’ characteristics highlighted in the case study.

2. Discuss current and relevant trends in Internet, e-commerce and social media that helped the entrepreneurs expand
their success in this case.
3. If you are the founder of this business, describe your vision and mission to establish an innovative and
entrepreneurship strategy to lead this firm towards more growth and success?
4. Discuss your approach to build spirited innovative (I) teams in this firm and identify some techniques you will use to
manage and interact with such teams?

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