Web Presence that can Scale

Web presence that can scale

Introduction

The number of non-profits and charitable organisations is on the rise, it is getting harder to keep costs down but also run effective campaigns that attract supporters and income.  Much income is now derived from having an online presence and your supports will want to donate directly via your website.

With that in mind, charities need to be able to keep costs down but also be able to scale up when running a large campaign.  Good examples of this are Comic Relief and StandUp to Cancer in UK and Jerry Lewis telethons in the US.  These are large scale operations, but on smaller scale most non-profits need to run lean and the scale up for large campaigns.

The Cloud Solution 

Moving your web presence to the cloud can help with coping with demand but also running lean when your campaign is dormant.  Most Cloud Platforms like Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure offer the ability to run a website on either Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or even SaaS.  

How does this save me money and allow to flex with demand?

Cloud platforms are generally costed on data transfer, compute time and storage therefore you only pay for what you use.  Please see below for the example of how some websites run their hosting and how the cloud is a great alternative for non-profits.

Example Hosting Configurations

High Cost (Over Cautious)

This is where you have more resources than you require but under utilising those resources. Therefore for a typical seasonal campaign activity you would get a lot wastage.

Users able to host outstrips campaign reach

Resource are underutilised

Cost wastage increases during low usage periods

In the example given, there are missed opportunities in terms of the campaign but the average resource wastage is over 50%!

Low Cost (High Risk)

This is where you have less resources than you require and you are over utilising those resources.  Therefore for a typical seasonal campaign activity you would get a lot of missed opportunities.

Campaign Reach outstrips ability to host, meaning missed opportunities

Resource Usage is nearly always at 100% or above

Very little Cost wastage, in fact costs savings in terms of hosting

With this solution there are many missed opportunities due to the inability to host that number of users on the website. 

The Cloud Approach (Best of Both Worlds)

Here we match up resources to the demand and therefore consistently use the resources we have effectively.

Resource Usage is always between 95 and 100%

Cost waster is kept to a minimum

Hosting ability tracks closely to Campaign Reach

Summary

Your supporters will want to visit your website and therefore will want to interact with you during heavy campaign periods.  In order to stay efficient and be able to keep up with demand and keep wastage to a minimum.  Hosting your website in the cloud with auto scaling is a sensible option.

Come and talk to us at Geekibo for how we helped other non profits achieve this and how we can help you.