Speaker: Peter LaMantia, CEO of Authentic Web
Introduction
Welcome everyone, and thanks for joining. My name is Peter LaMantia, CEO of Authentic Web. In this session, I want to share what we’ve learned from speaking with hundreds of IT directors, system administrators, and DevOps leaders about the struggles of managing domains, DNS, and certificates.
You’ll likely see some of your own challenges reflected here—and hopefully pick up a few useful ideas. This session runs about 30 minutes. If I miss your question, feel free to email me afterward for a follow‑up.
Today we’ll discuss what enterprise IT leaders say about their challenges, the top ten “symptoms” of domain and DNS pain, internal causes behind these issues, certificate management problems, compliance gaps, audit results, and a two‑step method for gaining control and reducing your team’s burden.
About Authentic Web
About ten years ago, I saw how difficult it was to manage domains and DNS. The systems available weren’t helping—they actually created more frustration. From that, we founded Authentic Web with one focus: to give enterprises modern tools for control, visibility, and automation.
Our platform unifies domain, DNS, and certificate management into a single system. It saves time, strengthens security, and helps organizations stay compliant without relying on manual spreadsheets, forms, or long email chains.
What IT Directors Say
When I talk to IT directors, I hear the same frustrations over and over:
- “Domains drive me crazy. We don’t know why we registered half of them or what’s running on them.”
- “Every time we lose a system administrator, the responsibility rolls up to me.”
- “Managing multiple accounts across registrars is painful.”
- “We don’t approve domains—we just set them up—but shadow IT still runs programs behind the scenes.”
- “Our DNS setup scares me. We don’t know who has access or what’s been changed.”
- “It’s too easy to lose a domain because registrar emails get buried in noise.”
- “There’s nothing worse than a DNS issue—you can fix it, but still wait hours for changes to propagate.”
- “We have multiple registrars and DNS systems, and every incident turns into a hunt for who has access to fix it.”
These comments repeat everywhere, no matter the size or industry of the organization.
The Top Ten Symptoms of Domain and DNS Pain
- Allowing key domains to expire because ownership is unclear.
- DNS hijack risks from poor controls and limited visibility.
- No enforced change management or workflow process.
- Weak identity and access management controls.
- Certificates expiring unexpectedly due to legacy setups.
- No enterprise‑wide DNS security policy.
- Zone files that no one fully understands or reviews.
- Multiple siloed registrars and DNS providers.
- Huge amounts of wasted IT time chasing issues.
- Managing domains by spreadsheet—the dreaded Excel file that everyone hates.
What IT Leaders Say They Need
From these conversations, IT leaders consistently ask for:
- A single pane of glass to manage domains, DNS, and certificates.
- Consolidation into an enterprise‑class registrar.
- Clear accountability through roles, permissions, and workflows.
- DNS security management around SPF, DMARC, and DNSSEC.
- Redundancy with secondary DNS for continuity during outages.
- Transaction cost reporting to allocate expenses across departments.
- SSO and multi‑factor access.
- Support for all top‑level domains under one provider.
- DNS security visibility to find vulnerabilities automatically.
- True 24/7 enterprise support.
What’s Happening Inside the Enterprise
Managing digital infrastructure used to be simple: one domain, one registrar, one DNS provider, one responsible team.
Now, enterprises manage hundreds or thousands of domains, across different registrars and multiple DNS systems—often due to mergers, departmental decisions, or acquisitions.
As digital operations expanded, so did the attack surface. Today, nearly everyone is a stakeholder in DNS—marketing, IT, legal, security—but no one has full ownership.
Requests move through tickets and emails, with separate people managing registrars, DNS setups, security checks, and policy enforcement. Zone file reviews rarely happen because they’re time‑consuming, complex, and risky to edit. Records accumulate over years, turning DNS management into what I call “the kitchen junk drawer.”
Why the Risk Persists
DNS mismanagement stems from silos, manual processes, turnover, and lack of accountability.
Most organizations still manage domains like it’s 1999—spreadsheets, legacy systems, and incomplete oversight. Very few have automated change‑management controls or unified policies in place.
The result: exposure to phishing, hijacking, ransomware, and outages that damage customer trust and regulatory compliance.
Audit Findings and Evidence
Our audits repeatedly show enterprises using multiple active DNS providers without centralized visibility. Even large, sophisticated organizations are vulnerable to hijack risks.
We also see partial SPF and DMARC adoption. For example, one major financial institution improved coverage from 5% to 51%—but still left almost half its domains open for email spoofing and phishing. Setting SPF “‑all” policies is easy yet still widely overlooked.
These are real, avoidable holes that bad actors exploit.
How to Modernize
If you don’t modernize domain and DNS management, you’ll eventually get caught out—it’s only a matter of time.
Leading enterprises are now replacing legacy “propeller‑plane” tech with modern domain security and compliance programs built around:
- Leadership sponsorship to treat DNS as critical infrastructure.
- Vulnerability discovery through complete visibility.
- Centralized control systems to enforce security policies automatically.
Automation reduces risk, simplifies compliance, and gives IT teams their time back.
Key Takeaways
- Managing domains and DNS manually is a major headache for IT teams.
- DNS vulnerabilities continue to grow; nearly every major incident ties back to DNS.
- Many organizations still operate under “set it and forget it” assumptions.
- IT lacks time and tools, so modernization and automation are essential.
With disciplined change control, visibility, and automation, you can improve security, uptime, and overall digital performance—while reducing operational cost and stress on your teams.
Closing Remarks
This is something we at Authentic Web are deeply passionate about. We’ve built technology that makes domain and DNS management simple, transparent, and secure. Our customers tell us it’s transformed the way their IT teams work.
I hope this session gave you new perspective on common challenges and practical paths forward.
We’ll post the full webinar video online soon.
If you’d like to discuss any points in more detail or learn how modernization could work for your organization, feel free to reach out to me directly.
Thanks again for joining, and have a great day.
