{"id":7388,"date":"2020-07-21T11:12:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T09:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xneelo.co.za\/insights\/?p=7388"},"modified":"2024-04-09T14:27:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T12:27:37","slug":"scaling-sacoronaviruscoza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xneelo.co.za\/insights\/scaling-sacoronaviruscoza\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling up sacoronavirus.co.za during the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you ensure all South African citizens get the correct health information and government updates, without putting them at risk of fake news? That was one of the challenges facing the government at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

One website for all SA coronavirus information<\/span><\/h2>\n

On 26 March 2020 it was announced that all websites in the .za namespace had to include a link back to the <\/span>sacoronavirus.co.za<\/span><\/a> website: the official government information resource for the COVID-19 pandemic. This was to ensure that all South African citizens received accurate information regarding the spread of the virus, and the efforts by our government to address the crisis. To give some context, there are 1.2 million domains registered in the .za namespace (although not all of them have websites). <\/span><\/p>\n

Naeem Mayet from <\/span>Digital Boutique<\/span><\/a>, a web design company, was asked to build a WordPress website by Digital Vibes, the company that manages the Minister of Health\u2019s social media accounts. \u201cCreating and setting up the website was fairly quick,\u201d explains Naeem, \u201cwe signed up with a basic <\/span>xneelo R99 hosting package<\/span><\/a>, and within a day the website was up and running.\u201d At first it was just going to be a basic site for the Health Minister\u2019s team to store press releases and media updates, but then the government decided to use the Minister\u2019s website as the point of online contact for all COVID-19 resources and information. \u201cSo from a small press release portal, it morphed to a resource point for COVID-19 – regulations, contact hotlines, daily updates etc,\u201d says Naeem.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Dedicated resource on a Managed Server<\/span><\/h2>\n

Prior to the announcement, the website was hosted on a shared server, using one of xneelo\u2019s Web Hosting packages. The xneelo team quickly noticed server load issues on the shared server that the site was hosted on. Our team proactively put measures in place to manage the significant increase in traffic so that the website wasn\u2019t overwhelmed – this could have resulted in downtime of this key resource, a concern for both Digital Boutique and xneelo. <\/span><\/p>\n

The xneelo team promptly moved the website to a <\/span>Managed Server<\/span><\/a> and provided advice on how to manage the surge in traffic. The Dedicated Server environment provides more resources and allows for greater configuration for a customer\u2019s specific needs, so this was a natural solution. The server was custom-configured to manage the increased traffic and demand, and following advice from the xneelo technical support team, Naeem modified the  website caching to maximise performance. Cloudflare was also implemented to mitigate any malicious attacks on the website.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Critical information site<\/span><\/h2>\n

Since the announcement was made for all websites to include a link to sacoronavirus.co.za, the website has received 23 million backlinks, with about 26,500 domains pointing to the site. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since moving to a Managed Server there has been zero downtime on this critical information site during the crisis, and the measures taken have so far proven sufficient. \u201cI\u2019ve been with xneelo for over 10 years and host hundreds of domains and sites with them,\u201d says Naeem. \u201cIt\u2019s always a pleasure to deal with xneelo and their talented technical support team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When we talk about customer service at xneelo, this is what we mean: working with you to solve your digital and web hosting needs. We know that running a business requires agility as your business grows and adapts to the world around you, and we\u2019re confident that our partnership can help you do just that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Record numbers of visitors<\/span><\/h2>\n

From 1st April to 30 June, sacoronavirus.co.za received:<\/span><\/p>\n