I'd like to start right at the top of this post with an enormous thank you to the members of V-Flyer for their support, patience and ability to embrace (huge) change as we took the biggest leap this site has ever attempted in moving not just ISP, but server platform and programming language that drives the site. On the face of it, we were mad to attempt it - but I think you can already see the benefits of taking the risk, and the new features and possibilities this now affords.
For the statistically minded, we moved over 4,300 members, along with 230,000 posts in over 27,000 topics. There were more than 4,000 photos that were re-sized, thumnailed and copied to the new server. 1600+ trip reports where re-indexed and updated. New (far more accurate) data was integrated, and we now query over 10,000 historical flight movements when pulling up the Which Aircraft tool, and re-use the same data to expose new views on information like flight status and all flights. In the last few days, we've already served up 1 million page views on the new site.
This all requires a bit of horsepower to make it happen (especially when, like we did last Friday, you suddenly have 450 users on the site concurrently!). So under the hood of the new site is a 8-core server, with each processor ticking along at nearly 3Ghz. We've also increased our bandwidth allowance from 100GB per month to 400GB per month, and the physical location has moved from Florida in the US to London - so it's closer to where the majority of visitors are. With our move, we've also gone green, as the energy usage of our server (and cooling of the environment it sits in), is carbon offset.
These improvements are, of course, designed to be transparent so that you just get the page you want to see as quickly as possible. And of course, there's plenty of room for more growth. Growing pains can be tricky, but I'm glad to say this latest - and largest - move has been reasonably smooth (notwithstanding the odd login error...!)
Pete
For the statistically minded, we moved over 4,300 members, along with 230,000 posts in over 27,000 topics. There were more than 4,000 photos that were re-sized, thumnailed and copied to the new server. 1600+ trip reports where re-indexed and updated. New (far more accurate) data was integrated, and we now query over 10,000 historical flight movements when pulling up the Which Aircraft tool, and re-use the same data to expose new views on information like flight status and all flights. In the last few days, we've already served up 1 million page views on the new site.
This all requires a bit of horsepower to make it happen (especially when, like we did last Friday, you suddenly have 450 users on the site concurrently!). So under the hood of the new site is a 8-core server, with each processor ticking along at nearly 3Ghz. We've also increased our bandwidth allowance from 100GB per month to 400GB per month, and the physical location has moved from Florida in the US to London - so it's closer to where the majority of visitors are. With our move, we've also gone green, as the energy usage of our server (and cooling of the environment it sits in), is carbon offset.
These improvements are, of course, designed to be transparent so that you just get the page you want to see as quickly as possible. And of course, there's plenty of room for more growth. Growing pains can be tricky, but I'm glad to say this latest - and largest - move has been reasonably smooth (notwithstanding the odd login error...!)
Pete
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