[dns-operations] Introducing CNAME Flattening: RFC-Compliant CNAMEs at a Domain's Root

[Edward Lewis]

>From: dns-operations-bounces at mail.dns-oarc.net ...
>Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 5:20 AM
>To: dns-operations at dns-oarc.net
>Subject: [dns-operations] Introducing CNAME Flattening: RFC-Compliant CNAMEs    at a Domain's Root
>
>http://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cname-flattening-rfc-compliant-cnames-at-a-domains-root
>
>Funny idea but ...

I disagree with the assessment of the idea as being "funny."

Marketing messaging fllter on (meaning, forget unsubstantiated claims, who was first, is this novel, how well it works), there's a very real need (a market demand) for the feature described.

Here's the use case.

As an owner of an enterprise and either having or building a trademark/word mark and a reputation I want to:
1) Buy a simple, short, catchy domain name
2) Publish the name in print, business cards, perhaps in audio/video ads that are not "click-through", use it over the (voice) phone
3) Host content with a large scale "cloud - if you will" provider who in turn manages demand by periodically switching IP addresses.
 
I.e., the owner wants to have someone go to "http://example.com" but can't have a persistent address.

One other factor, the enterprise owner may elect to have DNS hosted on a DNS provider and use a different vendor for hosting services.  And the enterprise owner might elect to have  CTO but not a VP of engineering, which influences what is out-sourced and what they can "do" themselves.

This is where the market has been for a couple of years now.

As far as solving this, since the "direct solution" isn't available (CNAME at apex), you have to make trade-offs which wind up approximating a perfect solution.  There are a number of options open, each with benefit and with drawbacks.