auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd) and Afilias Australia are pleased to announce the successful and historic transition of more than 3.1 million .au domain names from a legacy system to all new infrastructure in Australia. Prior to this event, Afilias had successfully transitioned 25 TLDs, including the 2.4 million .org domain (which held the record for largest transition until today).

The transition, completed on Sunday July 1, advances several goals of the .au Registry Transformation Project (2017) undertaken by auDA: 1) maintain and promote the operational stability and utility of the .au ccTLD; and 2) ensure the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data associated with the .au registration service, .au WHOIS service and the .au authoritative DNS name services.

The transition was implemented by Afilias Australia Pty Ltd, which was selected in December, 2017 following a global tender process. The transition is the culmination of six months of careful planning, testing and coordinating with registrars who provide .au names to the public. Afilias Australia Pty Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias plc, the most experienced TLD transition company worldwide and a global leader in registry services, supporting over 200 TLDs comprising more than 22 million domain names.

The move to Afilias’ next-generation registry service will enable the .au domain to build a global reputation for reliability and security, based on the following:

• More, modern infrastructure: Afilias has built new, up to date infrastructure in every state of Australia which will make .au names respond faster and more locally.
• Better security: The .au namespace is a critical part of the Australian digital economy. By deploying state of the art technology and working closely with Australian cyber security authorities, Afilias is ensuring that .au has the best defences against foreign and domestic security threats.
• Abuse, Spam and Phishing Protection: Afilias is an industry leader in proactively tackling suspicious domains linked to spam and phishing activities. This experience will help auDA mitigate abuse in the .au namespace, enhancing trust and protecting the Australian internet community.
• Australian management and support team: .au will be supported in-country by a fully equipped Afilias registry office in Melbourne. This office is backed by Afilias’ experienced teams in North America, Europe and Asia.

Competitive pricing: auDA has already announced a 10% reduction in wholesale fees for .au names. Additional savings are earmarked for other activities designed to ensure the .au namespace remains the preferred address for Australians.

Cameron Boardman, CEO of auDA said: “The transition to Afilias’ modern registry positions .au to meet the needs of Australia’s expanding digital economy, and offers all Australians the best possible service by ensuring the reliability and security of operations as well as the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data.”

Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President of Afilias, noted “Afilias is proud to support .au, one of the world’s leading ccTLDs, as it enters a new era of growth and vitality enabled by modern, high capacity, secure and resilient infrastructure. The .au Registrars have done a wonderful job working with us on the transition, and we look forward to supporting them and the entire Australian internet community for many years to come.”

The new system for .au went live on Sunday, July 1, 2018. During the handover of the registry database from the legacy operator to Afilias, .au websites and email continued to work without interruption during this historic transition event.