Rdrs is not financially sustainable
Dear team, I am wondering if we are going to talk about the cost of rdrs. So far it has turned out to be very expensive, 2 million dollars. This is not sustainable if each request costs 300 dollars. We need to see where we can cut the cost and recommend to cut costs , otherwise nobody will be able to pay for it and I don’t think ICANN should pay forever! Farzaneh
Hi Farzeneh et al– I had similar questions on a recent call, and we did indeed have some discussion. To follow up on what was discussed, I had asked for clarification from Staff as to which of the described costs were 1. One time costs (such as R&D) which – having been spent once – won’t occur again. (in other words, “sunk costs”) vs. 2. Ongoing operational costs, which would be steady regardless of volume of requests (in other words, “maintenance” costs”) vs. 3. Incremental costs to ICANN anytime a request is made. Staff clarified the estimated expenses, and further clarified which were one time sunk costs, which were ongoing maintenance costs, but just as importantly clarified that there is no (or negligible) incremental cost associated with any new request made. This is important because it highlights there is opportunity for “economies of scale” to apply in running the RDRS (or SSAD or successor systems); the higher the volume of requests, the higher the efficiency of the system. Conversely, when the RDRS has sub-optimal awareness, or sub-optimal utility, or sub-optimal ability to route requests to the full spectrum of data holders (all of which we have discussed to a great extent already), it is at its least efficient. In other words; The ” cost per request” will approach $0 as # of requests approaches infinity. I find this to be noteworthy. From: farzaneh badii via Gnso-rdrs-sc <gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org> Sent: Monday, June 9, 2025 9:30 AM To: gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org Subject: [EXTERNAL EMAIL] - [Gnso-rdrs-sc] Rdrs is not financially sustainable Dear team, I am wondering if we are going to talk about the cost of rdrs. So far it has turned out to be very expensive, 2 million dollars. This is not sustainable if each request costs 300 dollars. We need to see where we can cut the cost and recommend to cut costs , otherwise nobody will be able to pay for it and I don’t think ICANN should pay forever! Farzaneh
Hi All, I believe we should ask from our Staff colleagues more granularity on this. The $2M figure is the cost of the Pilot program so far. As per my quick conversation with Eleeza yesterday this includes: 1. The cost of development so far (for about 50%) 2. The cost of Staff working on the Pilot, preparing for and sitting on our call, and all the great work they do (for about 50% too according to Eleeza) 3. The cost of operating the system itself… which is not null but far from the whole $2M if the prior 2 items are already each "about 50%". Once the Pilot is completed * Number 2. should disappear only keeping the cost of Staff dedicated to maintaining the system (in amongst the rest of the ICANN infrastructure). * We can assume that the further enhancements we are recommending will cost as much as the development up until now (~$1M), and I tend to agree with Gabriel: these are sunk costs. * Unless we recommend human intervention outside of Requestors and Responders - a human-vetted User Accreditation comes to mind - the incremental cost of a request should be $0. In short, taking Gabriel’s breakdown: 1. One time costs (such as R&D) which – having been spent once – won’t occur again. (in other words, “sunk costs”) - $1M spent + $1M for enhancements vs. 2. Ongoing operational costs, which would be steady regardless of volume of requests (in other words, “maintenance” costs”) - I would assume in the tens of thousands of dollars, but we need to ask Staff vs. 3. Incremental costs to ICANN anytime a request is made - potentially $0 if no humans at required (as is the case today) Kindly, Sebastien Ducos GoDaddy Registry | Senior Client Services Manager [cid:image001.png@01D81E10.09821660] +49 172 690 8418 Germany sebastien@registry.godaddy<mailto:sebastien@registry.godaddy> From: Gabriel Andrews via Gnso-rdrs-sc <gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org> Date: Monday, 9 June 2025 at 11:54 am To: farzaneh badii <farzaneh.badii@gmail.com>, gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org <gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org> Subject: [Gnso-rdrs-sc] Re: [EXTERNAL EMAIL] - Rdrs is not financially sustainable This Message Is From an External Sender This message came from outside your organization. Hi Farzeneh et al– I had similar questions on a recent call, and we did indeed have some discussion. To follow up on what was discussed, I had asked for clarification from Staff as to which of the described costs were 1. One time costs (such as R&D) which – having been spent once – won’t occur again. (in other words, “sunk costs”) vs. 2. Ongoing operational costs, which would be steady regardless of volume of requests (in other words, “maintenance” costs”) vs. 3. Incremental costs to ICANN anytime a request is made. Staff clarified the estimated expenses, and further clarified which were one time sunk costs, which were ongoing maintenance costs, but just as importantly clarified that there is no (or negligible) incremental cost associated with any new request made. This is important because it highlights there is opportunity for “economies of scale” to apply in running the RDRS (or SSAD or successor systems); the higher the volume of requests, the higher the efficiency of the system. Conversely, when the RDRS has sub-optimal awareness, or sub-optimal utility, or sub-optimal ability to route requests to the full spectrum of data holders (all of which we have discussed to a great extent already), it is at its least efficient. In other words; The ” cost per request” will approach $0 as # of requests approaches infinity. I find this to be noteworthy. From: farzaneh badii via Gnso-rdrs-sc <gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org> Sent: Monday, June 9, 2025 9:30 AM To: gnso-rdrs-sc@icann.org Subject: [EXTERNAL EMAIL] - [Gnso-rdrs-sc] Rdrs is not financially sustainable Dear team, I am wondering if we are going to talk about the cost of rdrs. So far it has turned out to be very expensive, 2 million dollars. This is not sustainable if each request costs 300 dollars. We need to see where we can cut the cost and recommend to cut costs , otherwise nobody will be able to pay for it and I don’t think ICANN should pay forever! Farzaneh
participants (3)
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farzaneh badii -
Gabriel Andrews -
Sebastien＠registry.godaddy