CDNetworks Case Studies The Onion Maximizes Advertising Inventory by Improving Site Performance of 50% and Eliminating Site Downtime

Edit This Case Study Record

	The Onion Maximizes Advertising Inventory by Improving Site Performance of 50% and Eliminating Site Downtime CDNetworks

The Onion Maximizes Advertising Inventory by Improving Site Performance of 50% and Eliminating Site Downtime

CDNetworks

Technology Category	Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Cybersecurity Services
Challenge	In 2006, The Onion's rapid growth in subscribers and site visits began to strain its infrastructure, leading to significant and unpredictable downtime. This downtime drastically reduced The Onion’s ability to sell ad inventory, negatively impacting both business planning and revenue. The Onion initially leveraged the services of two content delivery networks (CDNs). However, the primary CDN caused a site outage and its help desk staff lacked the highly qualified engineers needed to quickly bring The Onion’s site back online. This could have severely damaged The Onion’s brand just as it was gaining popularity. The primary CDN also took up to two days to provision new services and site features. Read More
About Customer	The Onion is a satirical news organization founded in 1988 and headquartered in New York, NY. Starting in 2006, The Onion made a concerted effort to establish www.TheOnion.com as its main media outlet. With heavy promotion and the 2007 launch of its online video series, TheOnion.com site quickly grew in popularity and has transformed the company. Today, the site serves award-winning news, videos, and 40-million page views to more than 8 million unique visitors each month, making it the most popular news organization in its class. The Onion has developed a loyal subscriber base, which plays a key role in spreading the word about ‘America’s Finest News Source.’ Read More
Solution	Having already worked closely with CDNetworks as its secondary CDN provider, The Onion IT team knew that CDNetworks could satisfy all its functional requirements. And having witnessed the CDN’s performance for whole site delivery, it decided to assign primary CDN responsibilities to CDNetworks. Since switching to CDNetworks, The Onion has experienced 100% website uptime and 50% performance gains, including average page download time of 75 milliseconds. CDNetworks proactively raises potential site issues. The Onion interfaces with senior engineers who are true subject matter experts. The company is constantly innovating technology and adding features. And its instant self-provisioning tool has made The Onion’s lives so much easier. In fact, CDNetworks’ tool has reduced The Onion’s average provisioning time from two days down to just two hours. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Cloud Security

Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Cybersecurity Services

Challenge

In 2006, The Onion's rapid growth in subscribers and site visits began to strain its infrastructure, leading to significant and unpredictable downtime. This downtime drastically reduced The Onion’s ability to sell ad inventory, negatively impacting both business planning and revenue. The Onion initially leveraged the services of two content delivery networks (CDNs). However, the primary CDN caused a site outage and its help desk staff lacked the highly qualified engineers needed to quickly bring The Onion’s site back online. This could have severely damaged The Onion’s brand just as it was gaining popularity. The primary CDN also took up to two days to provision new services and site features.

About Customer

The Onion is a satirical news organization founded in 1988 and headquartered in New York, NY. Starting in 2006, The Onion made a concerted effort to establish www.TheOnion.com as its main media outlet. With heavy promotion and the 2007 launch of its online video series, TheOnion.com site quickly grew in popularity and has transformed the company. Today, the site serves award-winning news, videos, and 40-million page views to more than 8 million unique visitors each month, making it the most popular news organization in its class. The Onion has developed a loyal subscriber base, which plays a key role in spreading the word about ‘America’s Finest News Source.’

Solution

Having already worked closely with CDNetworks as its secondary CDN provider, The Onion IT team knew that CDNetworks could satisfy all its functional requirements. And having witnessed the CDN’s performance for whole site delivery, it decided to assign primary CDN responsibilities to CDNetworks. Since switching to CDNetworks, The Onion has experienced 100% website uptime and 50% performance gains, including average page download time of 75 milliseconds. CDNetworks proactively raises potential site issues. The Onion interfaces with senior engineers who are true subject matter experts. The company is constantly innovating technology and adding features. And its instant self-provisioning tool has made The Onion’s lives so much easier. In fact, CDNetworks’ tool has reduced The Onion’s average provisioning time from two days down to just two hours.

Impact #1	Improved website download performance by 50%
Impact #2	Achieved 100% website uptime
Impact #3	Increased advertising inventory

Impact #1

Improved website download performance by 50%

Impact #2

Achieved 100% website uptime

Impact #3

Increased advertising inventory

Benefit #1	Website download performance improved by 50%
Benefit #2	Website uptime increased to 100%
Benefit #3	Provisioning of new site features reduced from two days to two hours

Benefit #1

Website download performance improved by 50%

Benefit #2

Website uptime increased to 100%

Benefit #3

Provisioning of new site features reduced from two days to two hours

Download PDF Version

Overview

The Onion Maximizes Advertising Inventory by Improving Site Performance of 50% and Eliminating Site Downtime

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit