IP assignment for virtual webhosting

I hate jumping into such a contentious issue, but the very fact that it is
contentious, and that it will potentially impact both my employer, Teleglobe,
and its customers, I have an obligation to point out several technical
issues.

I'll start with some recent threads:

>  But surely www.big-importantco.com would have their own machine and wouldn't
>  share with www.my-little-home-page.org ?

The issue with non-IP based virtuals, is the difficulty and complexity, and
more important, time-sensitivity involved, in *relocating* between servers.
DNS-based virtuals are impacted by caching resolvers, which are ubiquitous.
Lowering timers has risk too, especially if load spikes occur, eg for longer
than timer values.

If everyone is aware of the "slashdot" effect, then you can appreciate wanting
to move such a "slashdotted" site to a separate server (or server farm), in
a timeframe less than the DNS normal-TTL-value times. Not doing so would have
a serious negative impact on 100 little-domains, who may have SLA's with you.

Replace "slashdot" with "IPO" or "new software release", or any of a dozen
other usage-spike events; each customer has their own traffic trigger, and
the ISP won't necessarily have adequate warning. Three days is way too long;
even three hours can result in bad press, angry customers, and cancelled
contracts.

>  Nurani Nimpuno writes:
>   > We would 
>   > therefore like to request the community to consider making it 
>   > mandatory for NEW installations to use domain based web-hosting, with 
>   > the exception of a set of agreed applications needing IP based 
>   > web-hosting (eg. SSL).

I think there are a number of issues concerning the definition of "NEW".

Perhaps the only one to which most will agree is a square-one startup,
with no pre-existing hardware, software, or address space. New address
space, new servers, or even a new upstream, resulting in a mandatory
upgrade places undue burden on any affected company, not the least
of which is management systems for a new hosting system.

And even there, there is another issue - the digital divide, the technical
haves and have-nots. The first and third world. While there may not be
as many RIPE members with customers in that category, the fact that *any*
do means the policy must, IMHO, be sensitive to such issues. (Any RIPE
members with offices in certain countries, eg USA, may be under legal
obligation to do so, even if their head office, and/or customer, are not
in said country.)

There are many parts of the world, which would include parts of Europe which
were formerly Iron Curtain countries, where the general expertese, available
hardware and software, and language barriers, combined with newly-established
free-market economies, put high demand for technology in the hands of the
technical newbies, who are soooo far back on the learning curve that there
is zero chance of them being proficient enough to deploy and configure
DNS-based virtual domains as their first hosting service in a correct, or
timely, fashion.

I believe, that while it is admirable to encourage, strongly, those who can,
to do DNS-based IP, that sufficient arguments in several areas run counter
to mandatory policies for this technology.

The vast majority of RIPE members are, I believe, commercial entities. Any
policy which makes it necessary to turn away customers, would send the wrong
message to the market in general. We all benefit from fair and open
competition. If we permit "grandfathering" of IP-based virtuals, then to
not permit new applicants to do so is ever-so-slightly unfair. ISPs need
address space; this is a commercial issue for them. While we may hold
ignorance and incompetence in contempt, (and I do, personally), I don't
believe it is sufficient justification for the commercial impact of denying
IP address space which is otherwise justified (via IP-based virtual hosting.)

My two cents worth.
--
Brian Dickson,                                    Email: briand at teleglobe.net
Director, Backbone Engineering                    Tel  : +1 703 755 2056
Teleglobe Communications Corp.,                   Fax  : +1 703 755 2648
Rm 3214, 11480 Commerce Park Drive,               Cell : +1 703 851 9053
Reston, Virginia, USA, 20191                      http://www.teleglobe.com