Who Is Looking After Your Business Domains?

Your business domain name is easy to take for granted.

Your website works. Your emails arrive. Microsoft 365 signs in. Customers can find you online. Everything just works — so there’s often little reason to think about the domain sitting behind it all.

But someone needs to be looking after it.

A business domain is no longer simply a website address. It can be a critical part of your organisation’s identity, communications and security. Losing control of a domain, allowing it to expire, or having it registered under the wrong details can quickly become a significant business issue.

Domains Are a Critical Business Asset

For most organisations, domains are connected to far more than the company website.

They may be used for:

• Business email and Microsoft 365

• Company websites and online services

• Customer and staff portals

• Cloud applications

• Authentication and security services

• Marketing campaigns and landing pages

• Secondary brands and business names

• Redirects from older websites or domains

• Protecting your business name and brand

Many businesses also register additional variations of their primary domain to prevent another organisation or individual from using a name closely associated with their brand.

These domains may not have a website attached to them, but they can still be valuable business assets that need to be protected and maintained.

The Problem Is Often Ownership and Responsibility

One of the biggest risks we see isn't necessarily a technical problem — it's simply that nobody knows who is responsible.

Domains may have been registered years ago by a previous employee, web developer, marketing company or IT provider. Renewal notifications might still be going to an email address that nobody monitors.

Sometimes the person who originally registered the domain has left the organisation entirely.

Everything continues working, so nobody notices.

Until the renewal doesn't happen.

That's when a relatively small administrative oversight can become a much larger problem.

If an important domain expires, services connected to it can potentially be affected, including your website and email. In a worst-case scenario, an expired domain may eventually become available for somebody else to register.

Recovering from that situation can be considerably more difficult — and expensive — than simply making sure the domain was properly managed in the first place.

Domain Management Should Be Part of Your IT Strategy

Domains should be treated like any other important business technology asset.

There should be clear ownership, accurate registration information, appropriate security controls and someone responsible for monitoring renewals and configuration.

It's also worth periodically reviewing exactly which domains the business owns.

As organisations grow, change names, launch new services or work with different marketing and technology providers, it's surprisingly easy for domain registrations to become scattered across different providers and accounts.

Having them properly documented and managed gives your organisation much better visibility and control.

Domain Management Is Part of External IT Managed Services

For our valued Managed Services clients, domain management is one of the many areas we can look after as part of the broader IT environment.

Rather than relying on someone within the business remembering when a domain needs renewing, External IT can take responsibility for managing and monitoring your business domains alongside your other technology services.

This can include keeping track of registrations and renewals, maintaining domain and DNS configuration, assisting with domain changes and helping ensure important business domains remain under the organisation's control.

Most importantly, someone is responsible for looking after them.

It's another example of what Managed Services should be about — not simply fixing technology when something breaks, but proactively looking after the smaller pieces of your IT environment that can become very big problems when they're overlooked.

Not Sure Who Manages Your Domains?

Ask yourself one simple question:

Who is responsible for all of our business domains?

If you don't immediately know the answer, it may be worth finding out.

If you're an External IT client and we're not currently managing all of your domains, have a chat with our team. We can help identify what you have, review how your domains are currently registered and discuss bringing them under management where appropriate.

And if you're not currently an External IT Managed Services client but would like to know more about how we look after domains — and the wider technology environment around your business — we'd be happy to have a conversation.

Get in touch with External IT to discuss your domain management and how we can help keep this important part of your business protected and properly managed.

Sometimes good IT management isn't about the technology you notice every day.

It's making sure someone is looking after the things you shouldn't have to think about.

Talk to the Team today!