.UK modernisation, standardisation and legacy service retirement consultation
We are consulting with stakeholders on proposals to significantly overhaul the .UK Registry platform.
When Nominet was founded in 1996, it established the technical systems for the .UK platform which enable Registrars, and later Registrants to administer .UK domains. The codebase which supports the .UK registry platform is predominantly bespoke and has evolved over time.
As Nominet has evolved, Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) was introduced, and we have developed our own registry platform that uses standard EPP to support gTLD and ccTLD clients. This means Nominet currently operates two codebases, which could be combined and updated. This gives us and our stakeholders the opportunity to identify what works well in our systems and what could be improved.
To support the future progression of the Registry, we need to develop and modernise our platform. This presents an opportunity to align with global domain industry standards, improve the customer experience, increase security, and deliver efficiencies. To do this, we will need to retire some of the systems Registrars are familiar with which would result in significant change.
Our proposal has been informed by feedback since our first proposal for EPP Standardisation was published. All the relevant information from this initial stage is available on Registrar Resources.
If the changes go ahead, we will give considerable advance notice to Registrars to allow time for development activities, and your feedback is encouraged on how much notice is required, and our options for reducing impact.
We recognise that the proposed changes are significant. If we proceed as outlined, all Registrars will be required to make changes to the way they manage .UK domain names. We want to understand more about the impact this will have, so we can identify ways to support our customers.
Alongside a written submission, stakeholders have a variety of ways to find out more about our proposals via our consultation sessions. If you were unable to attend, the recordings are available on Registrar Resources.
- 20 February | Webinar: Consultation Overview
- 11 March | Webinar: Inter-Registrar Transfer Process
- 26 March | Webinar: .UK Lifecycle
- 18 April | Virtual drop-in for Q&A
- 24 April | Virtual drop-in, CEO call and Q&A
Here’s a copy of the slides from our consultation summary video above.
The consultation period runs until 26 April 2024. We hope you will take some time to review the proposals and take part. If you have any questions, or require this consultation in an alternative format, please contact [email protected].