City: Redwood City, CA
Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) and GPX Global Systems Inc. today announced the installation of a new mirror of the F-root server in Cairo, Egypt. This new project is fully supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The announcement was made at the Cairo ICT 2007 Exhibition and Forum, a leading industry event in the region. The new name server will be installed and operational by the second quarter of 2007 at the GPX Middle East Internet eXchange (MEIX) located in the Cairo Heliopolis area, and will mirror the F-root, one of the 13 ‘Root Name Servers’ located around the world, that control and organize accessibility to the Internet.
Paul Vixie, President of ISC, stated that “ISC is pleased to be working with the Egyptian government and GPX in bringing mission critical Internet services to the Middle East and North African community. The F-root server will enhance the experience of the growing Egyptian Internet communities and will increase resilience and technical independence from external sources. This provides an additional step in our goal to strengthen the foundation of the global network.”
Virtually every Internet transaction, from sending an e-mail to finding a website, begins with a Domain Name System (DNS) query. A DNS query is the method computers use to translate a human readable name to a network address that a computer can find. This new ISC F-root server will store the information needed to answer the question of where several hundred top level domains, including .i.e., .net, .com; etc. can be found.
“We believe this partnership will further strengthen the quality and reliability of the Internet infrastructure in Egypt,” said Minister Tarek Kamel, Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology. “We are delighted with the choice of Egypt, with its fast growing Internet market and key location in the region, and welcome the initiative of ISC and GPX to install an F-root node in Cairo. We are sure this project will enhance the experience of Internet users not only in Egypt but throughout the region.”
“Growth of Internet services in Egypt has been remarkable over the course of the last five years, promising to turn the country into the Internet hub for the Middle East and Africa,” said Nick Tanzi, Chairman, GPX. “We are happy to support the ISC and the Egyptian Ministry in their efforts to further this growth and to provide a more stable environment for Internet usage in the region.”
ISC
The Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (ISC) is a non-profit public benefit corporation with a long history of developing and maintaining the production quality of Open Source software – BIND and DHCP. ISC has increased its focus to include enhancing the stability of the global DNS directly through reliable F-root name server operations and ongoing operation of a DNS crisis coordination center, ISC’s OARC for DNS. ISC is also engaged with further protocol development efforts, particularly in the areas of DNS evolution and facilitating the transition to IPv6.
GPX Global Systems, Inc.
Incorporated in August 2002, GPX develops and operates state-of-the-art, neutral Internet eXchange (IX) facilities in emerging, but fast growing commercial Internet markets along the undersea cable systems of FLAG, SEA-ME-WE3, and SEA-ME-WE4 as well as other regional cable systems.
GPX IXs provide telecommunications companies (Telcos), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), e-businesses, and enterprise customers with a highly reliable, secure, neutral data center environment where they can collocate their mission critical communications and application platforms. In addition, the GPX IXs provide a single physical location where customers can access a host of services from multiple providers.
Contacts:
ISC Media Contact: Laura Hendriksen, +1(650)423-1309, [email protected]
GPX Media Contact: Tom Byrnes, SVP Sales & Marketing, [email protected]
