[ncc-services-wg] Re: [enum-wg] New Documents available: RIPE-384, RIPE-385]

On 6 Sep 2006, at 15:52, Katie Petrusha wrote:

> It is certainly possible to add a new organisation object type,
> like "ENUM", to be specifically used by the ENUM registries.
> This would involve the changes to the RIPE Database.
>
> I suggest you to contact ENUM-WG and DB-WG working group chairs
> to check first whether this change would require
> only a mailing list consensus or PDP, and then maybe put together
> a proposal for ENUM-WG and DB-WG and submit it to the appropriate
> mailing lists.

I'm leaving my wg-co-chair hat off, for now.

I'm disappointed that the RIPE-NCC hasn't seen fit to make a more
pro-active response in this case.

In agreeing to become the ENUM Tier-0 DNS Operator, the RIPE-NCC
deliberately (if perhaps implicitly) created a new service and a
new category of customer.  The RIPE-NCC appears to have assumed
(and, if so, quite reasonably) that existing tools and procedures
would be adequate to support the (formally, if subtly) different
business processes involved in dealing appropriately with customers
belonging to this new category.

Only recently are some of these customers beginning to need to deal
rather formally with the RIPE-NCC.  Consequently, they are starting
to drive the corresponding business processes.  So far, a single
trivial, but significant, example has come to light of a mismatch
between what is currently possible using existing tools and procedures
and what is appropriate in dealing with a customer belonging to this
category.  This should come as no great surprise; the unexpected will
happen in any new activity.

It seems to me that having appropriate processes, including appropriate
language, in place for dealing with each category of customer is an
operational imperative for the RIPE-NCC, and that the RIPE-NCC should
take the initiative to deal with any inadequacy in this area.

Consider the following parable.  The first customer arrives in a new
data-centre to rack some equipment, only to find that the air- 
conditioning
plant has not yet been switched on, and brings this to the attention
of the escorting data-centre employee.  What should the data-centre
employee do: reach for the switch, or rather ask the customer to prepare
a proposal for agreement among the other interested parties which would
provide a policy framework within which the switch could be moved from
its existing position?

I see this as an operational matter for the ENUM Tier-0 DNS Operator.
It's not technical; customer relations are part of operations, too.




Best regards,

Niall O'Reilly
University College Dublin Computing Services

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