Why I still care about DNS, routing, and logs when people want to talk models
Linux and networking roots that still apply to AI and modern systems
3 min read
Everyone wants to talk about AI models, but I still care about DNS, routing, and logs. Not because I’m stuck in the past, but because these are the fundamentals that make everything else work.
The fundamentals matter
When you’re building systems that need to work under pressure, the fundamentals are what save you. DNS resolution, network routing, and log aggregation might seem boring, but they’re the difference between a system that works and a system that fails.
I learned this the hard way at Bluhalo, supporting high traffic PHP and Perl sites for Premier League clubs. When you’re dealing with millions of requests per day, the fundamentals are what keep you online.
DNS is still critical
DNS might seem like a solved problem, but it’s not. When DNS fails, everything fails. When DNS is slow, everything is slow. When DNS is inconsistent, you get weird bugs that are impossible to debug.
Modern systems are more distributed than ever. Microservices, edge computing, and global deployments make DNS more important, not less. If you can’t resolve names quickly and reliably, your system will fall over.
Routing determines everything
Network routing determines performance, reliability, and cost. Get the routing wrong, and you’ll have slow systems, high costs, and unhappy users.
The same principles apply to AI systems. How you route requests between models, how you handle failures, how you balance load - these are routing problems, not AI problems.
Logs are your lifeline
When something goes wrong, logs are what save you. Not metrics, not dashboards, not AI - logs. Raw, detailed logs that tell you exactly what happened and when.
Modern logging is more complex than ever. Distributed systems, microservices, and cloud platforms generate logs everywhere. If you can’t aggregate, search, and analyze them quickly, you’re flying blind.
The AI connection
These fundamentals apply to AI systems too. When you’re building AI that needs to work in production, you need:
- DNS: Service discovery and load balancing
- Routing: Request distribution and failure handling
- Logs: Debugging and monitoring
The AI models are just one part of the system. The infrastructure around them is what determines whether they work or fail.
The builder’s mindset
This is what I mean when I say I’m a builder CIO, not a software engineer. I care about the plumbing because I know it’s what makes everything else possible.
You can have the best AI models in the world, but if your DNS is slow, your routing is broken, or your logs are missing, your system won’t work.
The bottom line
Don’t ignore the fundamentals. DNS, routing, and logs might seem boring, but they’re what make modern systems work.
When you’re building AI systems, don’t just focus on the models. Focus on the infrastructure that makes them reliable, fast, and debuggable.
The fundamentals haven’t changed. They’ve just become more important.