[ga] No more FUD -- what is the current size of the .com database?

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

VeriSign was spreading a lot of FUD in last week's hearings:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6117771.html

VeriSign's Ken Silva, its chief security officer, replied that .net and
.com were hugely different creatures and could not be compared
directly. "It's a different animal," Silva said of .net. "It's a much
smaller zone."

Let's go to facts, though, instead of FUD. What is the current size, in
gigabytes, of the actual .com database maintained by VeriSign? If
someone has a current zone file, that will be a close approximation
(the actual .com database will have a few extra fields per domain, like
the creation date, expiry date, and the registrar, since it's a thin
registry --- in a properly optimized database with tables, that's a few
extra bytes per domain).

My guesstimate is that the entire active .com database maintained by
VeriSign is just a few gigabytes (under 10 GB) in size, and will thus
fit on an iPod. Does anyone have a better estimate? [the historic
database of all changes/transactions will be somewhat larger] 

It's certain that the .com database is considerably smaller than
databases operated by large organizations like Wal-Mart, FedEx,
Amazon.com, the IRS, Visa, Mastercard,  American Express, American
Airlines, NYSE or NASDAQ. Even the databases of the largest registrars
(GoDaddy and NSI) are probably larger than that of VeriSign, as the
registrars need to keep "thick" WHOIS data and customer data.

While VeriSign is certainly operating a database larger than Paris
Hilton's little black book (barely), how big is "big"?

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/