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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>FYI…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>ICANN and Verisign Announce Start of 90-day Root Zone Management System "Parallel Testing" Period.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Fahd Batayneh<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>ICANN<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Sent:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Saturday, April 09, 2016 1:09 AM<br><b>Subject:</b> ICANN News Alert -- ICANN and Verisign Announce Start of 90-day Root Zone Management System "Parallel Testing" Period<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:8.0pt 8.0pt 8.0pt 8.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.icann.org/"><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=94 height=94 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D19244.BD1D4AE0" alt=ICANN></span></a><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><h2 style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>News Alert<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2016-04-08-en">https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2016-04-08-en</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='margin-top:15.0pt'><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div></div><h2 style='margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>ICANN and Verisign Announce Start of 90-day Root Zone Management System "Parallel Testing" Period<o:p></o:p></span></h2><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>8 April 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>As scheduled and <a href="https://icann.adobeconnect.com/p7u7s2fnyne/?OWASP_CSRFTOKEN=7b45a99c2e6a13ba3eb1ab732acebad1ab49d59213029cdab45caadf215173b4">previously communicated</a>, on 6 April 2016, ICANN and Verisign began a 90-day “parallel testing” period to verify the continued integrity of the data contained in the root zone file produced via the Root Zone Management System (RZMS) following the successful completion of the IANA Stewardship Transition. This is a key step in ensuring the continued security and stability of the Internet’s root zone. The parallel testing period is part of the <a href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/root_zone_administrator_proposal-relatedtoiana_functionsste-final.pdf">proposal</a> that ICANN and Verisign submitted to NTIA in August 2015, at NTIA’s request, on how best to transition NTIA’s administrative role associated with root zone management to the global multistakeholder community in a manner that maintains the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The parallel testing period will be used to confirm that the production RZMS and the parallel test version of the RZMS (that has had the NTIA authorization step removed) produces identical output for every root zone file published. During the parallel testing period, and until the successful completion of the IANA Stewardship Transition, the authoritative root zone file will continue to be produced by the production RZMS that contains the authorization step performed by NTIA.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The parallel testing period is scheduled to be conducted for a continuous 90-day period and will be considered successful as long as no unexplained differences in root zone files are identified between the production RZMS and the parallel test RZMS. In the event that any unexplained differences are found the issue(s) will be addressed and the 90-day parallel testing period will be restarted.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Verisign will be publishing daily comparison reports throughout the testing period, which will be made available on their <a href="http://www.verisign.com/rzms-parallel-ops/index.html">website</a>. ICANN will also be publishing monthly reports, which can be found on ICANN’s Stewardship Implementation <a href="https://www.icann.org/stewardship-implementation">webpage</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The RZMS parallel testing period is part of ICANN’s broader implementation planning efforts in response to the anticipated IANA Stewardship Transition. On 14 March 2014, NTIA <a href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions">announced</a> its intent to transition its stewardship of the IANA functions to the multistakeholder community. The Root Zone Administrator (RZA) role currently performed by NTIA will be eliminated upon the successful completion of the IANA Stewardship Transition, currently projected for September 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>