About Us
We love IT Solutions
Who We Are
More than 25 years ago, Knipp Medien und Kommunikation GmbH was founded by the twin brothers Dietmar and Elmar Knipp. Since the company is managed by them as sole shareholders.
We operate in the three business areas IT Enterprise Services, Domains and Print. We provide the proper solution. Whether our customers require a specialised software or a new comlex online presence, comprehensive domain portfolio management or individual print products.
Management
As a bottom-up company, Knipp is active in the business segments of the so-called "New Economy", but feels at the solid principles of the "old economy" much better. To the accepted principles include down-to-earth approach, healthy and steady growth, flat hierarchies, independent working style of the employees, and opportunities for newcomers.
Dietmar Knipp (left) is the CFO, Elmar Knipp (right) CEO.
IT Enterprise Services
As an IT system house we plan and develop individual web-based software solutions which are operated in-house in our own data center in Dortmund.
Besides software and website development, we also offer hosting services. We offer the full range of services, from cloud services and virtual hosting over dedicated servers to high-availability solutions. For all inquiries and questions, our customers can always be sure to directly reach competent contact persons and no call center.
Domains
When it comes to our domain business, we provide numerous services as a registrar. We register, transfer and manage domains.
In addition, we provide the technical infrastructure and software for multiple top-level domains. For this purpose we use our in-house developed registry system TANGO Registry Services®. With our own nameserver infrastructure ironDNS® we increase the data availability on the Internet for our customers.
As an official Trademark Agent at the Trademark Clearinghouses (TMCH), the centralised database of verified trademarks and brand protection mechanism in the new gTLD era, we provide consulting and support for the registration of trademarks in the TMCH register.
Our in-house print office provides a wide range of print services. We offer CTP and DTP operations as well as digital and offset printing.
We are able to print both in high volumes, e.g. exhibition catalogs or image brochures, as well as single pieces like personalised invitations. Large format printing and stand-up displays are also our daily business.
The processing steps bring our products to perfection. Folding, grooving, stapling, binding, and laminating – – all this and more is done directly in-house to safe money and time which is a benefit that our customers greatly appreciate.
Organisations and Associations
As a member of different associations and participant in different IT industry meetings we work closely together with other players in our field. The close networking sets impulses for new trends and developments. A vivid exchange of information is crucial as the IT industry is evolving rapidly.
In addition, we actively engage to stay tuned to the technical evolution. Due to the membership and participation in multiple organisations, we are enabled to codetermine technical and legislative changes in a regional and international context.
Alongside, please find a list of some of the most important associations and organisations.
Since 2019, Knipp is also a member of ICANN's Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG), the main representative body of ICANN accredited domain name registrars. Being part of this group allows us to leverage the interest of registrars like ourselves and to serve as the voice of our customers in the policy making process.
A lot has happened at Knipp over the last decades. Here are some of our most important milestones:
Development of a first PC based program for photosetting for our own usage. Compared to conventional techniques, our pogram led to a significant reduction of the required production times for books and extensive works of reference.
Relocation to the "TechnologiePark Dortmund" close to the Technical University of Dortmund. Extension of the photosetting program to a fully automatic pagebreak with complex tables, footnotes, images, synopses, mathematical and chemical formulas, polychromatism and non-Latin characters (Greek, Cyrillic).
Acquisition of well-known academic publishers as customers, such as Harenberg Lexikonverlag, Walter de Gruyter, Springer Heidelberg, Linden-Verlag.
Expansion of the business activity as Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Development of a database system for multimedia use (Print, CD-ROM, Internet) of texts and pictures. Programming of a CD-ROM user interface which is used for regular updates of juridical reference books.
Production of the encyclopedia "Was geschah am" (Harenberg-Verlag) plus simultaneous publication on the Internet.
The renaming of the company in "Knipp Medien und Kommunikation" reflects the strongly increased meaning of Internet services as a business field. Knipp is one of the first Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the Ruhr area.
First Website of the Eurowings Luftverkehrs AG goes online - conception, programming and operations. Online booking of a flight is possible for the first time. Development in Java of the client and server side.
Knipp becomes a member of RIPE, the authority responsible for the administration of IP address ranges and AS numbers in Europe, the Near East and Central Asia. As a Local Internet Registry, Knipp is authorised to assign IP addresses after conducting a requirements check; e. g., so-called Class C nets consisting of 256 IP adresses each.
As a founding member of CORE (Geneva), Knipp is the first operational registration agency for .com, .net and .org domains in Europe. These domains can be ordered directly in Germany without any detour via the USA.
Extension of the domain portfolio to over 30 European top-level domains.
The Domain Registration System (DRS) is introduced as the first of its kind. It enables the fully automatic registration and management of domain names.
Our Website wins the iF design award 2004 in the discipline Screendesign and Interface. Criteria were, among others, efficiency, simplicity, interaction and communication, aesthetics, »Look and Feel« as well as innovation and design quality.
First implementation of the new IDN standard for the registration of domain names with special characters in our DRS.
Commissioning of the new in-house data center with redundant power supply and several fire sections at the Dortmund location.
Setup of our own nameserver infrastructure with 10 locations worldwide. From the beginning, this nameserver infrastructure supported IPv4 and IPv6 and can be used for multicast and anycast solutions. The underlying nameserver infrastructure is based on Knipp's ironDNS® technology.
The entire electricity supply is provided by 100% CO2-neutral, regenerative energy sources.
We now use agile methods for our software development processes.
The first larger software package that is produced with Scrum is Knipp's TANGO Registry Services®. The system is initially used by thirty top-level domains. It is the biggest software project in Knipp's history – with roughly 1.1 million lines of code.
The Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), established by ICANN to leverage intellectual property protection, takes up its work on March 26, 2013. Knipp is official Trademark Agent, accepts registrations of trademarks for the TMCH and as a special service verifies the required data information and documents.
CORE is elected to become one of three globally acting Emergency Back-End Registry Operators (EBERO) for top-level domains, some kind of firefighters for struggling registries. For the operation of such TLDs and a guaranteed take-over time of four hours at most, a special version of Knipp's TANGO Registry Services® is used.
.ruhr is launched as the first new top-level domain in Germany. The technical operation is conducted by Knipp on the TANGO platform. With the ironDNS® technology a further of our products adds to the stable operation of the .ruhr TLD.
More new top-level domains begin their operation with our TANGO Registry Services®. Among them are .koeln, .cologne, and .nrw.
Expansion of the data center capacities in Amsterdam (Backup systems for the location in Dortmund).
Several .Brand TLDs of our customers are delegated, for example .bauhaus, .sap, .man, .gmx and .ifm.
ISO 27001 Certificate: Our security measures satisfy the highest international standards and are periodically reviewed by an independent certifier.
The new monitoring software for domain portfolios mambo⁺ is published.
The new smart mambo⁺ bulb is publicly presented on the ICANN meeting in Copenhagen. These LED RGB Bluetooth bulbs signal status updates of domain abuse cases within a domain portfolio, supplementing to the automated reports and e-mail alerts that mambo⁺ provides out of the box.
Knipp relaunches its Website in a fresh, new look with a focus on mobile clients.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes effective and keeps the industry on their toes. The new regeluation causes paper work and requires changes in software, especially in customer projects. Thanks to the ISO 27001 certification, processes at Knipp already comply with high standards. Only few adjustments need to be made.
mambo⁺ Abuse Reports: The functionality of our successful domain monitoring solution is constantly being expanded. With their Abuse Reports, registry users get all the information required by ICANN and many other useful data and statistics.
Knipp becomes a member of ICANN's Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG), the main representative body of ICANN accredited domain name registrars. Being part of this group allows us to leverage the interest of registrars like ourselves and to serve as the voice of our customers in the policy making process.
Knipp has successfully renewed its ISO 27001 certification. The recertification proves that Knipp's information security concept and the way information is handled comply with highest international security standards.
mambo⁺ continues to grow: For the first time, the number of monitored domains rises above 60 million.
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 strongly affects everyday life and the economy worldwide. For the first time, Knipp's business continuity plans are implemented outside of tests. The good news: all systems and services continue to operate with nearly no restrictions.
The DNS infrastructure technology of ironDNS® is continuously getting better, e.g. by hardened security mechanisms for the protection of zone data before and during their transmission. In 2020, a completely new REST Interface was introduced in addition to the constantly enhanced SOAP-API.
ISO 27001 Certificate: Our security measures satisfy also the latest versions of international standards, as the periodical reviews by independent certifiers show.
It has been 30 years now since we located our headquarters at the TechnologiePark Dortmund, in close proximity to the Technical University of Dortmund. Perfect for our student employees to reconcile work experience and studies. Perfect for our enterprise to gain fresh knowledge and motivated manpower.
Knipp has successfully renewed its ISO 27001 certification and thus also meets the requirements of the fundamentally revised standard ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
Knipp has been officially confirmed by ICANN as a Pre-Evaluated Registry Service Provider (RSP) for the next round of the New gTLD Program. As a Full-Service RSP, the offering includes the complete registry infrastructure with Registry Core (MAIN), DNS and DNSSEC and additionally provides the worldwide best IDN support (Level 3, including all IDN tables / LGRs defined by ICANN). This means maximum planning and implementation security, especially for TLD applicants with a global orientation.
