Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (ISC) is a public benefit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to supporting the infrastructure of the universally connected self-organizing Internet – and the autonomy of its participants – by developing and maintaining core production-quality software, protocols, and operations.
Who is ISC?
ISC is the organization behind the ongoing development and distribution of the most used name server software, BIND. Our team of experts helps drive the DNS standards and author the reference implementation that is then distributed as commercial-quality Open Source software for the Internet community. ISC provides the same leadership both in standards development and software for the DHCP protocol. ISC is now engaged in the Software Defined Networking and Open Home Gateway communities, among others. Over the years, the ISC team has written over 60 RFCs, and is proud to be contributors to the Internet Engineering Task Force.
ISC not only writes the software, we use it to operate critical Internet infrastructure in the form of the F-root name server. F-Root is one of the 13 Internet root name servers that power the global Internet. Through F-root, ISC pioneered the use of global “anycast” in DNS. ISC also provides DNS infrastructure services to over 50 of the world’s ccTLD operators (at no charge) as part of our mission.
All of our open source software is freely available on our website. Through generous donations, sponsor support, and its commercial subsidiary, DNSco, ISC is able to fulfill our mission of developing open source software products.
History
ISC was originally founded in 1994 as Internet Software Consortium, Inc., to continue the work of maintaining and enhancing BIND following in the footsteps of CSRG at U.C. Berkeley, Digital Equipment Corporation, and Vixie Enterprises. BIND was then (and is now) an essential component of the Internet’s infrastructure. ISC’s founders – Paul Vixie, Carl Malamud, and Rick Adams – felt that BIND’s continued support and enhancement should be managed and funded by an independent entity and made it so. IANA designated ISC as a root name server operator (first NS.ISC.ORG, then F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET) allowing ISC to interact equally with root name server operators and better support the global use of BIND.
Over the years a number of additional software systems have either found a home at ISC or were created by ISC to better support the Internet’s infrastructure. ISC funded and developed the only complete DHCP implementation. ISC has also expanded its operational activities beyond root name service, to include Internet hosting facilities for other open source projects, secondary name service for more than 50 top-level domains, and a DNS OARC (Operations, Analysis and Research Center) for monitoring and reporting of the Internet’s Domain Name System.
Originally launched by a grant from UUNET Technologies, ISC’s previous funding were from Software Forum members, F-Root mirror sponsors, grants from foundations including the US National Science Foundation, support contracts, development contracts, and currently, donations.
In 2004 ISC changed its name to Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. ISC is a 501(c)(3) public benefit incorporated in the state of Delaware, with employees all around the world; having the legacy of global constituency.
