I don't believe your assessment is correct. I very specifically said built-in. This remains true. If curious, we're on CentOS 7 specifically. I didn't say there aren't any options, only that there aren't any built-in. What you described as alternatives are totally true, but they still aren't built-in. It's a manual/puppet/chef/etc. config everyone has to do.

As for the applications - we have little direct input to TeamCity of Gitlab (the problem children here). And even if we did, I think we agree: the application level shouldn't cache anyway.

That being said, we're looking at `dnscache` as one of a few solutions here. But the point remains: we have to do it.