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

[Matthew Ghali]

On Apr 4, 2014, at 2:20 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer <bortzmeyer at nic.fr> wrote:

> [Warning: sloppy terminology, for instance, "root" is not used in the
> usual DNS meaning.]
> 
> http://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cname-flattening-rfc-compliant-cnames-at-a-domains-root
> 
> Funny idea but it works only if your DNS is hosted at CloudFlare.

Funny...

First, to claim invention for DNS record synthesis is far past disingenuous. At the least Akamai and  Route 53 have been doing this for years. Cloudflare has a reputation and didn’t care what damage it took with their colleagues, who obviously don't overlap at all with their market.

Second, to call this record synthesis a “CNAME” is a disservice to the industry. Everyone else selling this sort of service has gotten along fine describing it honestly - AWS’s alias, for example. Overloading the name of a clearly defined DNS rrtype just causes confusion and misunderstanding.

Old Matt would drop the (f-)bomb here and say something snarky. We’ve established that Cloudflare was dishonest in naming the service and its original providence. New Matt will just be sure clients are aware of the many other vendor choices.

Hopefully, this was just a late April 1 prank, and I’ve been trolled.

matto