Who would have thought that July is the ideal time to address a new server for the Christmas season? Experience has taught us that e-commerce sites always face issues during the holidays. The most problematic are those running on PrestaShop, which, under high traffic, require specialized accelerators and adjusted parameters for database access.
Common issues e-commerce sites face during the holidays include:
- Server Overload: Due to increased traffic, leading to database server overload as well.
- Slower System Performance: Especially problematic for PrestaShop sites without accelerators, where even optimizing the web and database servers may not help.
- High Traffic: Generates significant network traffic, which the network infrastructure may struggle to handle.
- Unexpected Attacks: From bots or, increasingly, from competing e-commerce sites.
All these issues stem from a common cause and problem: to achieve the intended turnover, a well-dimensioned server is needed to handle any potential issues. For those unfamiliar with IT, we explain it using a simple analogy:
- Web Hosting = Garage Sale
- VPS = Mall Store
- Dedicated Server = Store in Your Own Building
- Cloud = International Chain of Stores
If you’re not a major player like Alza, a dedicated server should suffice. If a well-tuned dedicated server on your own network proves insufficient, you can expand it with a CDN network like Cloudflare. Unfortunately, sometimes even this won’t help, and you’ll be faced with the decision of whether to invest in a more powerful machine, move to the cloud, or expand your current server into a cluster. If a client moves their e-commerce site to the cloud, it may also become non-functional due to incompatible architecture.
Here’s how to approach it:
- Choose the Right Technology and Network Speed: Some components may have a lead time of up to two months.
- Optimize Web and Database Server Settings: Set it up, leave it, analyze, adjust, and repeat until it’s perfect.
- Implement Supportive Accelerators, Caching, and CDN: Set it up, analyze, adjust, and repeat until it’s perfect.
- Refine the E-commerce Architecture: Remove unnecessary components, improve database indexing.
- Prepare Automated Early Protection Mechanisms: Against any potential attacks.
- Integrate All the Above: Ensure all components work together seamlessly.
This article aims to illustrate the extensive effort required to prepare a server for the Christmas season when done meticulously and to emphasize that a month is not enough to fine-tune a server. Fine-tuning requires data, which only comes after a few days. Adjust settings, then wait for data. And so on, continuously, until it’s perfect.