Use cases

This use case supports the creation, customization, and governance of nameserver defaults to align with architectural and compliance standards.

Managing DNS configurations at scale requires the consistent assignment of infrastructure components across domains. DigiCert®​​ DNS enables the dynamic and centralized configuration of nameservers and nameserver sets by eliminating inefficiencies, reducing misconfiguration risk, and improving security consistency across domains. DNS teams can define and manage reusable, governed nameserver structures to support automation, compliance, and operational scale.

This use case focuses on implementing DNS security controls that protect infrastructure and data while meeting regulatory and internal compliance requirements.

DNS is a high-value attack vector. Misconfigured or unprotected DNS services can lead to data breaches, domain hijacking, DDoS amplification, cache poisoning, and regulatory penalties. Many compliance frameworks also require that DNS activity be securely logged, monitored, and protected against unauthorized access. DigiCert®​​ DNS’s robust access controls - including API key management, token-based authentication, and TSIG enforcement - help organizations prevent credential misuse, configuration drift, and unauthorized changes, while maintaining visibility and alignment with security and compliance standards.

This use case covers the full domain lifecycle - from registration and configuration to ongoing maintenance - with support for primary and secondary settings, redundancy, customization, and visibility.

A properly configured domain is crucial for ensuring that services are accessible over the internet. Mistakes in setup or delegation can lead to broken applications, lost web traffic and revenue, user dissatisfaction, and increased vulnerability to spoofing or hijacking. As organizations grow, managing domain configurations manually can become error-prone and inefficient. Organizations can ensure availability, consistency, and operational transparency by automating and centralizing domain configurations through DigiCert®​​ DNS. This approach also helps proactively identify risks and reduce troubleshooting time.

This use case focuses on managing DNS services in multi-tenant environments, where domains, records, users, roles, groups, and permissions coexist on a shared platform.

Effective multi-tenancy ensures isolation, security, and operational efficiency. As organizations scale, managed DNS solutions that maintain strict tenant separation become critical—without them, there is a risk of unauthorized access, increased operational overhead, and compliance issues. DigiCert®​​ DNS simplifies multi-tenant management by enabling seamless onboarding, granular tenant control, and centralized operations, all without compromising security or governance.

This use case involves creating, updating, retrieving, and deleting DNS records that define how domain names map to network services. It spans primary and secondary domains to ensure records remain accurate and consistent across the infrastructure.

DNS record accuracy is critical to service reliability, as incorrect or outdated records can disrupt core functions such as web hosting, email delivery, and security validation. As environments become more dynamic - with microservices, automated infrastructure, and cloud platforms - DigiCert®​​ DNS helps organizations reduce risk and increase operational agility by supporting agile deployments, smooth service migrations and rollbacks, and robust security and compliance efforts, while offering deep visibility into DNS configurations.

This use case enforces fine-grained access control in DNS management by assigning roles and permissions to users or groups. Role-based access control (RBAC) lets administrators tailor access by job function, responsibility, or organizational structure.

As DNS environments scale in complexity, controlling who can make critical changes becomes essential. RBAC enforces the principle of least privilege (PoLP), minimizing the risk of misconfiguration, unauthorized activity, and compliance issues. DigiCert®​​ DNS’s RBAC capabilities help organizations prevent unauthorized or accidental changes, meet regulatory requirements, and maintain a clear audit trail. By leveraging these controls, teams can reduce outages, improve security posture, ensure accountability, and streamline internal and external audits.

This use case centers on usage statistics and activity log analysis, providing insight into DNS performance, billing, and accounting.

DNS performance is critical to the availability of digital services, making detailed usage statistics essential for understanding traffic and verifying DNS changes. DigiCert®​​ DNS’s comprehensive reporting provides insights into service demand, highlights abnormal usage, supports troubleshooting and optimization, and confirms change propagation. Its log retention and analysis capabilities also support audit readiness, compliance, and forensic investigations.

This use case focuses on securely replicating DNS zone data between authoritative servers through zone transfers. It covers configuring primary and secondary IP sets to control which systems can send and receive data.

Reliable zone transfers are essential for maintaining consistent DNS records across multiple servers or locations. By managing zone transfers through DigiCert®​​ DNS, organizations can ensure data integrity, enforce transfer permissions, and reduce the risk of misconfigurations or unauthorized access. This results in improved DNS reliability, simplified replication processes, and better control over distributed DNS infrastructure.