EU referendum Website Outage

Following the news that the EU referendum registration website crashed under the weight of 525,000 applications last night, there below the comments of Jonathan Birch at Redcentric on how organisations can ensure such outages can be prevented, especially in instances where it is so apparent traffic peaks should be expected.

Jonathan Birch, Product Manager at Redcentric:
“Technology is everywhere and businesses and consumers alike will admit they couldn’t get by without it. It’s unsurprising then that when data outages occur it results in outcry – business brand names are dragged through the mud, which can be hard to come back from in the social world we live in. It’s not only the little guys either, as last night saw the government’s EU referendum registration website crash under the weight of 525,000 applications.

“Consumers want to use services they can depend on whenever they need them and this is especially true when it comes to the ability to register to vote. To ensure these outages are a rarity, organisations rely on high quality data centres which take every precaution possible to guarantee downtime is kept to an absolute minimum.

“People often don’t realise the vital role data centres play in their everyday life, ticking over in the background keeping their data safe and their technology working. That said, some outages will inevitably occur and media storms will ensue. However, by combining foresight as to when traffic peaks will occur and making the right choices on how and where to host public data, these services should become increasingly reliable.”