How many people are needed to run an ICANN new gTLD Rgistry?

The number of people needed to run an ICANN new gTLD (generic Top-Level Domain) Registry can vary significantly, but it is typically not a large in-house team if the registry operator utilizes a backend service provider.

The ICANN gTLD program emphasizes the operational, technical, and financial capability to run a registry, which is a piece of visible Internet infrastructure.

Here's a breakdown of the typical approaches and staffing implications:

1. Using a Registry Backend Service Provider (Common Approach)

Many new gTLD applicants opt to use a specialized Registry Service Provider (RSP) (or "backend provider") to handle the technical and operational heavy lifting. This greatly reduces the need for extensive in-house technical and development staff.

• Staffing Focus: The in-house team can be smaller and concentrate on business operations, marketing, policy compliance, and registrar relations.
• Core Team Roles: You'd still need people for:
  • Management/Strategy
  • Legal/Compliance (ensuring adherence to the Registry Agreement and ICANN policies)
  • Sales/Marketing
  • Customer Support (for registrars, not usually for end-users)
• Estimated Size: A streamlined registry relying on a backend provider could potentially be run by a relatively small team, possibly under 10 full-time employees for the core management and business functions, though this is a simplification and depends entirely on the scale and complexity of the TLD.

2. Operating the Registry In-House (Less Common for New Entrants)

Operating an entire registry platform requires a significant investment in technology and human resources to meet ICANN's strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs), particularly concerning security, stability, and availability (DNS, RDDS/WHOIS, EPP).

• Staffing Focus: This requires substantial technical and operational staff in addition to the business and compliance teams.
• Technical Team Roles:
  • DNS/DNSSEC Engineers
  • Database Administrators
  • System Architects and Network Engineers
  • Security Personnel
  • Software Developers
  • 24/7 Support Staff
• Estimated Size: Running an entire registry system in-house would require a much larger, highly-skilled team—easily tens of people—to manage the infrastructure, development, maintenance, and 24/7 operations and support.

In short, while there is no official minimum staffing number specified by ICANN, the choice between using a backend provider and running it in-house is the biggest determinant of the necessary team size. Most new gTLD operators leverage backend service providers to keep their in-house operational team lean.