Extreme events in the air led to extreme conditions on the web. With the help of Apica’s new cloud-based performance service, ApicaWebOverload™, the most visited airport web sites could enjoy undisrupted service with maintained response times, despite a massive increase in traffic.

When such a large disturbance as the ash cloud occurs a massive herd behavior starts on the web. Many seek information on a few sites, these sites, in their turn, refer to roughly the same other sites for more information, leading to extremely high traffic in a short time. You get a stress test in real time, far exceeding the normal capacity of the site.

"When this kind of event occurs, it is incredibly important for us to be able to provide useful information to travelers. That our websites, arlanda.se, swedavia.se and brommaairport.se are up and running to provide key information is extremely important in a crisis situation. Having a relative who can’t get home, or a colleague who can’t get to work, can have huge impact on many people’s lives. It’s important that you’re able to find information on our sites and that these hold up against the incredible pressure that arise. During the ash cloud incident we worked around the clock to provide useful information to travelers via arlanda.se, swedavia.se and brommaairport.se.” says Anna Berglund, Head of Digital Services at Swedavia.

That extreme operating conditions will occur is easy to understand but difficult to prepare for. Swedavia was well prepared when the ash cloud struck, since they already subscribed to Apica’s new Web Performance service Apica WebOverload™.

The cloud-based service is tailored to handle extreme loads. The service utilize Apica’s high-capacity network and optimization services which are prepared to take over the client’s web traffic on a very short notice. If the client sees an increasing traffic trend, the service is deployed and serves visitors using cloud-based delivery.

"We have created a performance service that the customer can use only when they need it, without any investment in new expensive hardware. We see the cooperation with Swedavia as a proof that the service can handle extreme loads of a highly critical web site", says Sven Hammar, CEO of Apica.

More about Apica WebOverload™

Apica WebOverload™ manages and optimizes large traffic volumes. A protection against overload is also built into the service. This means that traffic volumes over the site's normal capacity maximum can be redirected to a "wait page" which informs the visitor that he or she can come back in a moment. This approach guarantees performance for those who are "let in” because those who are "in queue", on an external network, do not generate any load on the web server.

The service is delivered as a cloud-based Web service, it is run through Apica’s data center, which is independent of the where the client's site is hosted. All web traffic is routed directly to Apica’s servers where it is filtered and treated. The managed traffic is then sent to the client's web servers in a second step.

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