casestudies

These case studies reflect different applications of our complex hosting services.





1. Streaming sounds: Dancetracks Digital


Client Dancetracks Digital
Type Online digital music store
URL http://www.dancetracksdigital.com
Visitors 300,000 per month
Hits 15,000,000 per month
Bandwidth 700GB per month
Disk space 4TB
Product Database 50,000 items
Hardware Configuration Cisco Firewall, Loadbalancer, 4 x Web Servers, Dual processor Database Server, Redundant Database Server and 4TB Storage Solution.
Services Hourly and daily remote backups, fully managed solution with 24/7 support.

Dancetracks is a record store based in New York, specialising in selling house music on vinyl to DJs. Their online presence, Dancetracks Digital, has grown from an e-commerce site selling vinyl records for despatch by mail to an online digital audio store, where tracks can be searched, previewed, purchased and downloaded digitally.

Making Dancetracks work is all about bandwidth. With multiple users online, all potentially listening to audio previews and downloading purchased tracks, the hosting needs to be both powerful and agile. Dancetracks' hosting provision has evolved from a single-server configuration to a load-balanced solution where traffic is distributed across servers, so the load is spread and each user gets the bandwidth they need.

In addition, Dancetracks can rest easy knowing that their valuable, business-critical audio files are being regularly backed up.

"When we took our music store into the digital age, we wanted to concentrate on the music, not tech stuff. Design Solution's hosting service has been ideal, offering the peace of mind we wanted plus 24/7 support, which is important to us as we're based in New York."Iain Catling, DTD Holdings LLC

2. Traffic control: Hannant's


Client Hannants Ltd
URL http://www.hannants.co.uk
Type E-commerce website
Visitors 300,000 per month
Hits 11,000,000 per month
Bandwidth 120GB per month
Disk space 25GB
Product Database 25,000 items
Hardware Configuration Cisco firewall, load balancer, 4 x web servers, dual processor database server, redundant database server and storage server
Services Hourly and daily remote backups, fully managed solution with 24/7 support.

Hannant's specialises in plastic model kits and associated items such as paints and glues. Hannant's is a family business, established in Lowestoft, Suffolk (UK) in 1890 and now into the fourth generation.

Trading from a mail order centre in Lowestoft and a retail operation in London, Hannant's has a large and very loyal customer base and secures much of its business through repeat orders.

We first became involved with Hannant's in 1997, when we set up the company's first website. Previously, the company had advertised in specialist magazines, but the web provided a great opportunity to communicate directly with modelling enthusiasts around the world. Since '97 the site has grown from an online catalogue into a thriving online store. Customers can search for the latest kits as they are released, purchase them and pay online.

Today, traffic to the site is extremely heavy, comparable to the UK sites of such major brands as McDonald's and BHS.

There's no question that downtime would mean lost orders. But since Hannant's choose DS hosting, that's not a problem they've ever faced.

"Over the years, our website has grown from a marketing support into an integral part of our business. Design Solution's hosting has been an important part of that process, ensuring that our customers can find the products they want without delay or technical problems."Nigel Hannant, Managing Director, H. G. Hannant Ltd

3. Business online: JV Trading


Client JV Trading Ltd
Type Stock control and invoicing system
URL http://www.jvtrading.co.uk
Visitors 50 per month
Hits 5000 per month
Bandwidth 2GB per month
Disk space 2GB
Product Database 1000 items
Hardware Configuration Cisco Firewall, load balancer, 2 x web servers, Dedication Dual Processor database server.
Services Hourly and daily remote backups, fully managed solution with 24/7 support.

JV Trading is a beer wholesaler. Established in 1993, JV has grown rapidly with a blend of keen pricing, great customer service and approachable attitude.

The JV site provides useful information, but most business is done by phone and in person. The real strength of JV's hosting is behind the scenes, because the company subscribes to DS's online business applications, hosted on DS servers.

JV's staff, sales representatives and suppliers can log in to an online system and view details of stock levels, orders and invoices. JV's telephone operators use the system to handle customers' telephone orders and enquiries. Every operation is handled through a normal web browser like the one you're using right now. JV have no in-house data centre, and their hardware is just standard desktop machines. Everything is remote and online.

With such business-critical functions being handled in this way, two things are important: reliability and security. DS Hosting delivers on both, and also provides the bonus of scalability.

The availability of JV's server is guaranteed, so customers are never left hanging. JV's operators know that their system will be ready to go. In fact, the system is more robust than many in-office servers.

On the security side, JV's data centre is airtight. Its security goes far beyond what would be practical or cost-effective at JV's own premises. Encryption levels are comparable to those used by banks. Only named staff, at specific machines, can use the system (through a secure login plus IP restriction system). Data is backed up hourly and daily and, because it's remote, cannot be stolen or compromised at JV's site.

Best of all, the system is as scalable as all our hosting solutions, so JV retain the ability to grow and develop. By managing their key business data remotely, JV get all the benefits of a top-end computing system without the investment, depreciation, maintenance costs and security issues.

"It was a big decision to take our business information systems online, but I'm really glad we made the switch. Design Solution's hosting of the system has been rock-solid, providing a service that's probably better than anything we could have created in-house."Mick Carver, Managing Director, JV Trading Ltd