Weathering the Storm

Feb 08 -

All eyes are on the storm clouds as the Northeast prepares for a blizzard today.  Dubbed Nemo, this one is going to hit hard, according to all accounts.  But Web managers can only relax this morning if they know their website is safe and sound.  And for many, that means a different kind of cloud.  

Multiple availability zones with a cloud provider means leveraging the cloud infrastructure to best prepare for extreme environmental emergencies, like a blizzard or hurricane.  Using a multiple server configuration, and spreading them across multiple availability zones, you can decrease the likelihood that your entire infrastructure will be affected by a weather event.  And the speed at which you can spin up new instances of your servers, there is no reason a cloud installation can’t take advantage of these capabilities, giving Web managers peace of mind as the storm bears down on them.

And this cloud has a silver lining too.  Now that you know your site is going to weather the storm, you can focus on using your website to continue to inform your community.  Many of our customers, such as high-ed and healthcare organizations, have created a simple emergency alert system using built-in tools in CommonSpot tools.  That forward thinking has made it easy for them to create notifications that instantly appear in several predetermined locations on their site. From anywhere, whether at the office or at home, a content contributor can just fill out a form with the necessary message, tag it for distribution and time frame, and hit submit.  Then instantly, anyone visiting the site will have the latest information presented to them, or they can target the message to those who will likely benefit from it.

So relax, rest assured that your site is going to remain useful, informative, and most importantly, up and running during this emergency.  That should give you more time to focus on the things that really matter, like shovels.  Until Amazon can shovel your driveway, you still have to do that yourself.

 

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