In the classical DNS architecture each server has its own unique IP address and the user query goes to one specific physical server. With this approach the geographic location matters a lot: if a user from Tashkent queries a server in America, the response is delayed and the site opens slowly. Anycast DNS solves this problem in a fundamentally different way by binding one IP address to dozens or hundreds of servers around the world, with BGP routing sending each user to the nearest point.
How Anycast technology works
The word anycast means "any one" and the name is not chosen by accident. The technology uses BGP routing to announce one IP prefix from many places around the world, and each internet provider picks the shortest path, sending the user to the closest server. For example, Cloudflare announces the 1.1.1.1 address from more than 300 cities at the same time, and a user from Tashkent automatically lands on a node in Frankfurt or Singapore.
This process is completely transparent to the user and requires no configuration on their side. The operating system sends a regular DNS query, but the packet is redirected on the way by BGP routing to the nearest node. As a result, response time drops to a few milliseconds and websites load noticeably faster.
Comparison with Unicast and advantages
In the traditional Unicast DNS model the user connects to the exact server that is physically located in a certain place. If the server is in America, a query from Tashkent crosses the ocean and back, losing 200-300 milliseconds. This affects not only speed but also reliability: if the server goes down, the entire service stops.
Anycast removes these drawbacks. When one server fails, BGP routing automatically redirects traffic to the next closest node, and the user notices no interruption. DDoS attacks also get spread across hundreds of servers, each calmly handling its own share of load.
Which providers use Anycast
Today nearly all leading DNS providers on the market use Anycast. Cloudflare has more than 300 points of presence for 1.1.1.1, Google distributes 8.8.8.8 over Anycast with an average response time under 15 milliseconds. AWS Route 53, Azure DNS and other cloud services work on the same principle.
Even small business DNS services have now moved to Anycast. It is a very good price-to-value option because you get world-class speed and reliability with no extra fee. The era of running your own DNS servers with manual management is over.
Benefit for users from Uzbekistan
For users in Central Asia, Anycast DNS is especially important because there are few points of presence in our region and queries usually go to Frankfurt or Moscow. With Anycast enabled the DNS response time drops to 20-40 milliseconds, while in plain Unicast this figure stays at 150-200 milliseconds.
The speed difference may not seem big, but opening a page generates 10-20 DNS queries and these differences add up. As a result, an Anycast site opens 1-2 seconds faster, which matters a lot for conversion and user experience.
Sayt.uz practice
On 78 percent of domains registered through Sayt.uz, Anycast DNS is enabled and included in the basic package at no extra cost. Real client metrics confirm it: the average DNS response time on Anycast sites is 28 milliseconds, while for regular DNS users it is 180 milliseconds. The premium DNS package costs 95,000 sums per year and includes DDoS protection and extended analytics. Over the past year, more than 2400 client sites using this service never went down due to DNS issues, and Google PageSpeed scores improved by an average of 18 percent.