ICANN Exploring Certification of Backend Registry Operators

In advance of the ICANN meeting in New Delhi, India, this announcement isto inform the community that ICANN is exploring a potential initiative forthe certification of backend registry operators for new gTLDs. ICANN has identifiedregistry operator certification as an area that may improve the applicationprocess for new gTLDs and improve security and stability by creating a poolof available and pre-qualified registry operators in the event of registryfailure.

ICANN is an internationally organized non-profit public benefit organizationthat administers certain features of the Internet's unique identifiers. Asa private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operationalstability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representationof global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to itsmission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes. A general descriptionof ICANN is available at http://icann.org/tr/english.html.

Background

The idea of creating a certified registry operations provider program isnot new. In March 2003, ICANN released criteria for stable registry operationto be used in the selection of new sponsored TLDs: https://www.icann.org/riodejaneiro/stld-rfp-topic.htm#D1.

Since the March 2003 ICANN meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a wide rangeof community members (registrars, ccTLD registry operators, Non-CommercialConstituency members, among others) have encouraged ICANN to move forward withthe creation of an Accredited Registry Services Provider program (or similarprogram). As an example, the 15 March 2006 GNSO Issues Report on TechnicalCriteria for new gTLDs referenced the idea of creating an accredited registryoperator's system (see http://gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/tech-criteria-15mar06.htm).The topic was also raised in the GNSO Public Forum in Lisbon, Portugal in March2007 and during the November 2007 ICANN meeting in Los Angeles, California.

Additional research and discussion on this potential initiative is anticipatedas staff moves toward the introduction of new gTLDs and implementation ofthe gTLD registry failover plan in the near future. Further information willbe provided on the ICANN website.