Centralized control of client-side domain name resolution using VPN services

A network device comprising:

• an application that originates DNS requests and receives DNS responses;
• and
• a secure extranet client comprising:
• a tunnel creation module to establish a secure extranet connection with a load-balancing server that provides load-balancing information to devices in order to balance load from client devices among a set of data centers;
• a cache manager to receive load-balancing information from the DNS server, wherein the load-balancing information includes network addresses associated with the set of data centers;
• a DNS request module to intercept a DNS request to resolve a hostname, to generate a DNS response that resolves the hostname to one of the network addresses contained in the load-balancing information, and to forward the DNS response to the application.

A system comprising:

• a set of data centers;
• a set of client devices;
• and
• a load-balancing server that provides load-balancing information to devices in order to balance load from the client devices among the data centers,
• wherein each of the client devices comprises:
• an application that originates DNS requests and receives DNS responses;
• and
• a secure extranet client comprising:
• a tunnel creation module to establish a secure extranet connection with the load-balancing server;
• a cache manager to receive load-balancing information from the load-balancing server, wherein the load-balancing information includes network addresses associated with the set of data centers;
• a DNS request module to intercept a DNS request to resolve a hostname, to generate a DNS response that resolves the hostname to one of the network addresses contained in the load-balancing information, and to forward the DNS response to the application.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions causing a programmable processor to:

• establish, with a secure extranet client installed on a client device, a secure extranet connection from the client device to a load-balancing server that provides load-balancing information to devices in order to balance load from client devices among a set of data centers;
• receive, with the secure extranet client, load-balancing information from the load-balancing server, wherein the load-balancing information includes network addresses associated with the set of data centers;
• intercept, with the secure extranet client, a DNS request to resolve a hostname;
• generate, with the secure extranet client, a DNS response that resolves the hostname to one of the network addresses contained in the load-balancing information;
• and
• forward the DNS response to an application on the client device.