A New Platform For .nz And Its 750,000+ Domains

Today, InternetNZ is proud to announce a successful rollout of a new .nz registry system.

The country code top-level domain of Aotearoa New Zealand - .nz - is now powered by an industry-leading registry solution. It’s based on the CIRA Registry Platform, the infrastructure behind the .ca domain name. InternetNZ will continue to manage it and keep all the .nz-related data in New Zealand.

InternetNZ Chief Executive, Vivien Maidaborn, says, "This significant investment into our infrastructure future-proofs .nz for Aotearoa New Zealand. We partnered with CIRA for the .nz registry replacement in 2021 because they understand the unique requirements, values and expectations of running a country code top-level domain.

"It’s an incredible feeling and a great privilege to be at the beginning of a new chapter for .nz. Our partnership with CIRA was fully remote throughout the development and migration, proving yet again that the Internet connects people across the globe to deliver solutions for the public good. The new system enables us to provide critical infrastructure for New Zealand for years to come," says Maidaborn.

"We are thrilled to welcome .nz to our community of forward-thinking TLDs," says Adam Eisner, General Manager, Registry Services, CIRA. "This collaboration was a true partnership, and we're excited to help bring next-generation features and reliability to .nz registrars and registrants."

There are many benefits for .nz authorised registrars, says Tim Johnson, InternetNZ’s General Manager, Customer and Product.

"The new registry empowers .nz registrars with more self-service capability and reduces technical barriers for new registrars. We also included a lot of new security controls in the system, responding to the challenges of constantly changing threats. The service will be easier to maintain, update, and operate over the long term.

"The team has built the new registry and the infrastructure for it despite the pandemic and supply chain disruptions. Thanks to this effort, the registry now has a modern, more secure, features-rich home," says Johnson.

The CIRA Registry Platform is currently in use with the .ca (Canada), .ie (Ireland), and other Top Level Domains (TLDs). Joining this growing community allows InternetNZ to benefit from ongoing platform development and upgrades alongside other TLDs and contribute to the platform's stability and strength.

Now that .nz is on a new platform, InternetNZ no longer uses the Shared Registry System protocol (SRS) and fully transitioned to the globally adopted Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP). The domain name industry standardisation enables InternetNZ to deepen collaboration with international counterparts.

About InternetNZ

InternetNZ manages the .nz domain - New Zealand’s home online. We work to increase the availability, utility, security, and trustworthiness of .nz and the domain name system. We provide the .nz infrastructure, critical to the performance of the modern New Zealand economy and the wellbeing of New Zealanders and our communities.

Our role as the manager of the .nz domain means we’re involved in a lot of Internet-related work throughout New Zealand, funded by the sales of .nz domain names. This includes:

• policy work on Internet issues faced in New Zealand,
• providing community grants,
• conducting research to highlight the state of our Internet,
• bringing together our Internet community.

About InternetNZ Registry System (IRS)

Based on the CIRA Registry Platform, IRS provides .nz registrars with access to the registry from a feature-rich web portal in addition to the standard API. IRS enables registrar support teams to provide additional support to domain name holders, including domain name maintenance, renewals, transfers and deletions. The .nz registrars will also have access to advanced search and history capability to help resolve customer queries and issues.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) manages the .CA top-level domain on behalf of all Canadians. CIRA also develops technologies and services-such as CIRA DNS Firewall-that help support its goal of building a better online Canada. The CIRA team operates one of the fastest-growing country code top-level domains (ccTLD), a high-performance global DNS network, and one of the world’s most advanced back-end registry solutions.

www.cira.ca

About the CIRA Registry Platform

The CIRA Registry Platform is an industry-leading solution for top-level domains seeking to build a thriving, flexible online community. Built off CIRA's 20 years' experience in managing the .CA domain registry, the CIRA Registry Platform provides top-level domains (TLDs) with the features, functionality and flexibility required to run a modern TLD business. To learn more visit cira.ca/registry-services

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