DNS is one of the key elements in the network that delivers content and applications to the user. However, DNS also manages a distributed and redundant architecture to ensure high availability and quality user response time. Due to the crucial role it plays in a network, DNS is also a high-value security target. Security attacks can flood DNS servers to the point of failure. To prevent this, a high-performing, secure DNS architecture and DNS offload capabilities must be integrated into the network.

DNS Express manages authoritative DNS queries by transferring zones to its own RAM. In this architecture, F5 DNS Services only has to open the DNS query packet once, as long as the request is for an address that is in the zone that was transferred to DNS Express. DNS Express simplifies a single processing instance of the DNS query to significantly improve the performance of F5 DNS Services. With DNS Express, each individual core of each BIG-IP device can answer approximately 125,000 to 200,000 requests per second.