2 page Case Study - Posted 3/11/2008
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Leading Online Recruitment Company Expands Services with New Web Environment
To expand its online business and increase revenue, reed.co.uk wanted to add new recruitment services. In 2007, the company collaborated with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Attenda to plan a Web environment based on the Windows Server® 2008 Standard operating system and Microsoft .NET connection software. Now, the development team can quickly plan and deploy Web services— easily supporting new business initiatives.
Business Needs
Established in 1995, reed.co.uk is one of the United Kingdom’s largest online recruitment sites, and attracts more than 1.6 million visitors each month. The online recruitment sector is rapidly expanding and competition for customers is strong. Mark Ridley, Technology Director at reed.co.uk, says: “It’s our goal to increase brand awareness and customer loyalty by providing the best user experience on our Web site.”
With this in mind, reed.co.uk always looks for innovative ways to improve its Web services. When the company’s hosting contract came to the end of its lifecycle in December 2006, Ridley saw it as an opportunity to upgrade the online environment. “Access to reed.co.uk is free for jobseekers, but we wanted to broaden the range of services of the online business and start to offer advanced recruitment tools—such as a candidate search for our business-to-business clients,” he says.
Ridley also wanted to prepare the company’s Web site to support an increasing customer base. “One of our biggest challenges is to expand our range of services, while providing visitors with a consistently high-quality user experience,” says Ridley.
In January 2007, Ridley began planning the company’s requirements for a new Web infrastructure. These included:
- Tools to easily manage server configuration
- High availability for consistent experience
- Lower total cost of ownership by improving efficiency and reducing server footprint
- Improved performance to allow for growth
Solution
In March 2007, reed.co.uk collaborated with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Attenda to develop a hosted Web environment based on Windows Server 2008. “We examined beta versions of Windows Server 2008 and knew that it demonstrated the reliability, flexibility, and security we required in a Web server,” says Ridley.
Windows Server 2008 provides a secure environment for developing and hosting services over the Web, and includes features such as Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, which provides improved Web administration, management, and configuration tools. “Internet Information Services 7.0 delivers massive increases in performance and scalability, but it also has a modular-based install, which makes it easier to manage and deploy,” says Ridley.
Ridley’s development team went to Microsoft headquarters in Redmond to take part in Windows Server 2008 workshops. “Our development team came back with glowing reviews of the technology and it inspired us to think seriously about making our environment live before general release,” he says.
In October 2007, Ridley deployed Windows Server 2008 on Intel-based, HP DL Proliant servers for a test migration. He also carried out high-volume batch testing to see how the server coped with sudden increases in Web traffic. “The performance tests increased our confidence that Windows Server 2008 would allow us to be more innovative and add value to the business.” says Ridley. “We experienced only a few logistical issues, and these were resolved easily,” he says.
The reed.co.uk site went live on 18 November. “It performed seamlessly—in spite of a seasonal rush of Web traffic,” says Ridley. The company now plans to install Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 database software to further support the solution.
Benefits
Due to the new environment, Ridley’s team can develop and deploy new business services quickly and Attenda uses enhanced health and diagnostics tools to monitor the site’s availability and performance.
- Increased scalability allows reed.co.uk to easily expand its range of services. For example, it can now support more than 1.6 million users every month, allowing reed to run an unprecedented online and offline advertising campaign in January 2008, driving record levels of traffic.
- The time and complexity of server management is reduced because administrators can compartmentalise the servers and assign them to staff that specialise in one specific aspect of server administration.
- Development of rich Web pages is now faster with enhanced integration between IIS 7.0 and Windows Server 2008 using ASP.NET 3.5.
- The cost-effective environment supports a significant increase in online visitors, but uses fewer servers than the previous solution.
- Attenda can quickly track and repair problems by using the Management Console in IIS 7.0.
Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualisation technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualisation tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and optimised datacentre. Powerful new tools such as IIS 7.0, Server Manager, and Windows® PowerShell™, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline Web, configuration, and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements such as Network Access Protection and the Read-Only Domain Controller option for Active Directory Domain Services harden the operating system and help protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.
For more information, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published March 2008
