I am a total sucker for an online deal; 1 day sales, Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday sales, I am the exact target market. So it should be no surprise I also love holiday shopping!
During my long and relaxing 4 day holiday weekend, I browsed many websites shopping for things that I do not need. According to a study by IBM SmarterCommerce, “500 major retail websites saw a 17% surge in online sales as of Thanksgiving Day as of 6 p.m. ET.” That surge in sales also means a surge in traffic. What does this additional traffic do to the websites though, and how are they able to handle the extreme uptick?
Holiday shopping brought to you by DNS.
Load balancing is one of the most crucial aspects of DNS, sure their could be tons of points of presence across the globe, but if the architecture of the network isn’t built properly, you can still have issues. If you launch a “30% off everything sale” on your website, and traffic surges, it is possible to take out an entire server if too many queries overload it. This then cripples your site, meaning your sale was utterly pointless because your website couldn’t handle the load.
DNS is, for the most part, a secret. Oftentimes, it is only brought up if some sort of DDoS attack is occurring on a website, only to gain it’s 15 minutes of fame and then quietly slip back into the D-List celebrity status until the next big attack. DNS is very important though. Without it, most online retailers would be crying in the corner today, instead of applauding their successes. Upticks in traffic to a website can cause major issues. If the DNS isn’t managed properly, it can even cripple it.
DNS is very important and it should play a critical role in your businesses digital footprint. Check out the following checklist to ensure your website is prepared.
What can you do to ensure that your website is able to handle the traffic? How is the architecture of your managed DNS provider structured? Are there many points of presence located across the globe hosted on distinct networks, or just a few? Is the network supported by Anycast DNS? Is it globally redundant? No-IP Plus is the perfect solution for easily managing your websites DNS. We are proud to say that since 1999, our network has had 100% Uptime, because let’s face it, there are no upsides to downtime. Our DNS Experts will ensure that your website is fast, reliable, and available, guaranteed.