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Security
Evolution of the Custom Cloud: Part 2 "Building the Cloud"
In part 1 we covered our Architecture for the Custom Cloud.
Wheel of Fortune
100%
uptime
85%
faster application performance
2,000
pages per minute
BUSINESS PROBLEM
For over 40 years, contestants on Wheel of Fortune have spun the wheel to win big on TV. And today, viewers at home can join in the excitement — by entering sweepstakes online for a shot at prizes.
However WheelOfFortune.com kept running up against the constraints of old technology. Whenever a big sweepstakes was launched, avid fans would descend on the website and often overtax its servers. Wheel of Fortune's web properties were hosted on old physical IBM servers, that were unable to adjust capacity in response to spikes in demands. Additionally, the old infrastructure, built piecemeal over the years, was unreliable. The legacy system just couldn't keep up. As a result, the site frequently crashed and experienced outages.
“Moving to the cloud was a huge transformation. Now we keep the site running smoothly when our fans need it the most.”
HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY
Esha Dhanraj
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Moving the site’s servers to the cloud provided the elasticity Wheel of Fortune needed. With an Amazon Web Services (AWS) solution, capacity is scaled up to flawlessly handle traffic surges.
Metal Toad also implemented several other strategies to boost the site's performance:
- With Amazon Cloud Formation, issues that used to take days to resolve can now be repaired within a few hours.
- The Amazon Virtual Private Cloud gives the team full control over security — private traffic stays private.
- Puppet automatically keeps each web server correctly configured and functioning.
- Fault tolerance was implemented by spreading their servers across multiple data centers.
IMPACT
Now the Wheel of Fortune site can keep pace with fans’ excitement. When the team launches a new sweepstakes, preventative scaling is used to double, triple, or even quadruple their capacity to match expected traffic and keep the site running smoothly at all times.
And after a promotion ends and traffic dies down, server capacity easily can be reduced, saving Wheel of Fortune the cost of maintaining always-on servers.
The site is now faster, easily handling peak loads of 2,000 pages and 60,000 requests per minute. Application performance has improved by 85% — with load times down from 200 to 30 milliseconds. User engagement is up thanks to a high-performing site with 100% uptime.
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We build the most valuable, safest solutions for our customers and have a significant amount of experience across all the major public Cloud providers.
Schedule a Free Consultation
Speak with our team to understand how Metal Toad can help you drive innovation, growth and success.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
The sales team at ABC was feeling a lot like substitute teachers, bogged down with cumbersome old tech and processes at crucial moments.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
A clear solution emerged: a single app that the sales team could use with any mobile device or computer
IMPACT
The new system revamped the entire sales process, making it faster, easier, and more efficient.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
Whenever a big sweepstake was launched, avid fans would descend on the website and often overtax its servers.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Moving the site’s servers to the cloud provided the elasticity Wheel of Fortune needed.
IMPACT
When the team launches new sweepstakes, preventative scaling is used to double, triple, or even quadruple their capacity to match expected traffic.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
DC Entertainment site is routinely crawled by third parties looking for security vulnerabilities or new leaks ahead of announcements.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
ML Log evaluation. We started by setting up a data pipeline that replicated the manual process Metal Toad had been doing for years
IMPACT
Quickly identified new threats. The ML Log Monitoring solution quickly found two groups of IPs for evaluation.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
Fox needed a transformation to streamline operations, maximize efficiency, and optimize coordination.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
The new platform will replace legacy systems with a solution that unifies viewer experience and aligns operations across the enterprise.
IMPACT
Fox now has in hand the detailed plan they need to make Fox Mississippi a reality.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
When approaching Metal Toad for a potential partnership, they made it clear that their current website was falling short.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Metal Toad improved usability, access to interactive modules, and site-wide responsiveness while optimizing Orchestra content for online search.
IMPACT
Visitor experience enjoyed vastly improved overall site usability, including ordering tickets, access to events calendar, quick-and-easy donations, and social sharing.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
Search results were stale, poorly ranked, and simply not delivering the content that users demanded.
TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Metal Toad proposed a custom search solution that was scalable, reliable, and free from licensing costs or vendor lock-in.
IMPACT
A 40% increase in relevant hit rates, drastically reduced search page load times, and overall improved visitor satisfaction were reported within the first week of launch.
WE DELIVER THE BEST
Case Studies
We are proud to be trusted by some of the most well-known brands in the world. Learn more about how we've set our clients to success.
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