For those wondering, is WordPress scalable? The answer is NO. True, a little strange in a way, but there is hope. First, you launch a product and think WP is a good short-time solution, but suddenly the website rockets and there is no time to worry about WordPress scalability and develop a new one while the current one can’t handle the amount of customers emerging every day.
Well, WP might not be scalable itself, but it is possible to scale WordPress by having AWS host WordPress. In this article we will tell how companies like OpsWorks Co. solve the eternal WP issue.
WordPress Is Not a Verdict
WordPress is the most popular content management system. The scalability and flexibility of the website depend on several factors. These must all be considered to make sure that your website performs as expected. Your website must be equipped to handle surges in traffic. If there is only your regular operating traffic you are used to, you must configure your WordPress in AWS to handle any drastic peak that might arise without crashing your site. A slow site is repellent to visitors, and an unavailable site is a note that says ‘don’t come here again!’
You must have been busy marketing your products to customers to buy online using your website. But when it is unreachable, all the effort you might have used and all the resources spent will all have been for nothing. As the website grows, so must be the resources allocated to it. It is done to ensure that it maintains its optimum operational efficiency.
Neglecting this essential factor might result in losing your audience to other sites offering better services. Therefore, it’s essential to prepare for WordPress scalability in advance for situations like these to ensure that you are always ready to handle any unexpected growth. The scaling solution is to migrate WordPress to AWS. Don’t be fooled. AWS itself doesn’t give you the opportunity for improved user experience and decreased bounce rates. It will require some additional tools and techniques. It happened so that we have mastered those over the years, and we are glad to share our experience with you in this post.
Why Scaling Is Important
WordPress is the most popular blogging platform on the web. Most users opt for WordPress because of its advantages and online capabilities. It is flexible for blog writing. With a good article, you are more than likely to break the internet. And when this moment of glory arrives, you must be prepared. Otherwise, it might turn into a doomsday with a lot of frustration.
For all site owners, there is one thing they must always be prepared for — it’s unexpected traffic. How does increased traffic affect your website performance if you are unprepared? Well, a sudden increase in traffic will cause the servers to become overloaded. As such, it will cause the site to slow down. Who wants slow service providers? No one.
As the business grows, the server load will also increase. The extra load on the site is solved by web server scalability to ensure smooth operation. Handling this is not as easy as it seems; professional aid is required to ensure that all processes are synchronized to provide exceptional service. That’s where companies like OpsWorks Co. come in with solutions to make your dream become a reality by hosting WordPress on AWS.
Furthermore, it is beneficial to have a scalable site. In times when the competitors’ site is performing below average, customers will migrate to you. It can occur if you have a better site prepared to handle such a spike with better WordPress scalability than the competition.
Client’s pains
First, as the site grows, so do the requirements and processes to ensure that the optimum operation is not affected. Solutions, such as acquiring extra servers, can be expensive. As they will need to be bought every time, the site exceeds the capacity of the available servers. As such, the company will always be overcharged.
On top of being expensive, acquiring more servers introduces further expenses. These include maintenance and monitoring of those servers. It means that maintenance engineers will be required, further increasing the company expenses. Without proper planning of scalability, the client is in danger of having a crashing site. Moreover, there is an increased risk of losing clients to competitors, as a result of recurring downtime and slow loading pages.
Managing a large WordPress site comes with greater responsibility. On top of worrying about WordPress scalability, security concerns must top the extreme priority list. The more it grows, the more it becomes visible, the more it is attractive to hackers. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the site is not left open to these malicious attacks.
Ultimately, you can choose a scalable website hosting provider with security measures in place. As such, you won’t have to worry about the safety of your site. At OpsWorks Co., they help you to migrate the WordPress site to AWS. Companies also offer regular scanning for potential threats. All the platforms use the current software versions with up-to-date security measures and enhanced protection capabilities. They also do continuous monitoring to make sure there are no weak areas within your website.
Components to Consider when Scaling
There are a few things you should analyze when deciding on WordPress scalability. The size of the website, its aims, traffic, and your website hosting are all important to note. Read further to find out how to consider those aspects and perform scaling at its best.
Specifications of the Site
The size of your site will determine if there is a need for scalability. The larger the site, the more requests it needs to process. Also, the high traffic makes scalability a must when managing a large site. Even smaller ones but with high traffic, or that usually experience traffic spikes require website scaling. It is to ensure that the site does not crash nor slow down in moments meant to be profitable.
Furthermore, the complexity of your site determines if there is a need for scaling. Sites that have dynamic pages require complex solutions to maintain smooth operation and potential scaling solutions. Kubernetes and AWS are powerful platforms that are capable of increasing efficiency of your website or application. Therefore, there is a need to host WordPress on AWS with implementation of Kubernetes to enjoy the benefits of a scalable site.
Upgrade Your Hosting
It is the most essential factor as all other improvements that were done to improve your site could be rendered useless by making a poor decision on this option. Also, the scalability of your site is largely dependent on the services offered by the hosting provider. You need to find a provider that has the capabilities to handle the unexpected spikes, and that does not stunt the site’s growth. At OpsWorks Co., they host WordPress on AWS to ensure the maximum operating efficiency of your site.
Limitations
WordPress on its own can easily handle simple blogging sites with low traffic. But as the site grows, so do the users. In this instance, more resources are required to handle the surge.
Hardware Limitations
Just like any application, its operational efficiency partly depends on its hardware. Processor limits of the server will determine how the traffic increase is going to be handled. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that your servers have enough power for any unexpected peak. This hardware limitation is solvable through WordPress hosting on AWS or even better — a AWS-based platform with Kubernetes on top of it.
Network Limits
The network speed of the hosting provider will determine how fast your servers will transfer files. Therefore, you must know the speed of your hosting provider to prevent inconveniences. Network adaptors have fixed speeds, which are 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s, and 1Gb/s. Also, the number of servers your hosting provider offers increases the limitations of the transfer speeds as the network bandwidth has to be shared between the servers.
Vertical Scalability
Vertical scaling websites are acquiring hardware with increased capabilities. The increasing CPU memory and RAM improve the site speed and its performance. It might temporarily solve the issue of minor spikes, but for major traffic bursts, a more complex solution is required. When traffic increases again, it is likely to bottleneck greatly, reducing effectiveness.
OpsWorks Co. Solution for Websites Scaling
A solution is an AWS-based platform with Kubernetes cluster, database, and scaling databases on top of it. Websites hosted on AWS for WordPress platforms avoid downtime. Moreover, the client saves a lot because there is no need to hire developers and spend money on additional servers.
Horizontal Scaling
Mostly vertical scaling has problems of its own. Bottlenecking usually occurs on vertical scaled configuration when the load increases. Instead, horizontally scalable web hosting is a more viable solution. It distributes the load across several nodes by spreading the traffic across multiple web servers. You can achieve that through the use of AWS hosting WordPress, which is a very efficient process.
Set Up a CDN
A CDN is a collection of servers spread around the world. They enable the distribution of site content to users close to a given server, which helps with WordPress scalability. For static sites, it is an excellent option as the load times will drastically reduce delivery content to viewers all over the world at lightning speeds, irrespective of their geographic location. Well-known CDN providers include AWS, which are used at service providers like OpsWorks Co. Additionally, CDNs offer security resilience and speed benefits.
A slow-loading site increases the chances of requests bouncing. The bounce rates can increase by as much as 38 percent. Over time, the website accumulates different files and assets. As a result, it becomes slower and starts to lose clients.
On top of caching and file optimization plugins, site speed can be greatly increased by the implementation of CDNs into your delivery network. It is a server that groups all your site’s resources on a network of servers distributed around the world. A user accessing your site will be served by the server geographically close to them. It allows the users to access your site at increased speeds. By hosting aWordPress site on AWS, the client is guaranteed all of the above WordPress scalability benefits and even more.
Kubernetes on AWS
Kubernetes is a modular software that was designed to orchestrate the function of separate containers into a unified service provider. And AWS is a cloud service provider, which enables all of your services to be done online. First of all, their combination saves the company the maintenance costs that are required to keep physical servers. Further, it enables the company to use some of the cloud tools to increase the efficiency of service delivery.
By scaling WordPress on Kubernetes, numerous benefits arise, which improve the site performance to a whole new level. First, there is WordPress scalability. Kubernetes can create numerous pods for the same process such that when the load increases, these numerous pods will provide load balancing. It is efficient, especially when the site starts to experience a sudden increase in traffic. The load-balancing process will ensure that the servers don’t choke. Also, the extra pods guarantee that the operating parameters of the clusters do not deviate from the set maximum efficiency range. As a result, it ensures WordPress high availability.
Kubernetes ensures WordPress’s high availability. It accomplishes this through the replication of pods. The replica pods act as a standby in case the operating one malfunctions, and they instantly take over. This kind of setup ensures that the site never crashes.
Updates on site are easily implemented when using Kubernetes. You only upgrade a certain part of the site contained in a pod. The replication process safeguards the normal operation of the site during updates. When an update on the site is performed by changing the contents of a pod, the old pod is not deleted. Therefore, when the new update starts to malfunction, the old pod with normal-working conditions will take over. It ensures that you don’t experience downtime, and you can attend to the failed update and troubleshoot. On the user end, nothing will be affected as they will still be able to access the information on the site as usual.
Furthermore, Kubernetes offers increased security. Kubernetes has security features on multiple levels, such as cluster and application. Therefore, running WordPress on AWS will be more than safe against malicious attacks from hackers. As the site increases, so will its visibility, attracting all kinds of attacks. That’s why you will need to have security features in place to ensure that it does not occur.
Services companies like OpsWorks Co. provides necessary tools to ensure that all the processes are operating as smoothly as possible while maintaining an environment for optimal WordPress scalability.
The gain
At OpsWorks Co., the client gains increased visibility, and hence its business will be able to grow. When the site is getting more users, the AWS for WordPress platform automatically adjusts its resources to meet the demand, ensuring that the site does not reduce its optimum operation. As such, no matter the traffic surge that occurs, your site performance won’t be affected in any way. It will ensure that you get all the profits. Furthermore, with quality service, you will be in a position to attract clients from underperforming service providers.
AWS WordPress hosting with OpsWorks Co. will save you from lots of expenses as you will only pay for the services you use. There is no fixed amount. That’s why on the days when the traffic is low, you won’t have to pay for what you didn’t use. Both the horizontal and vertical WordPress scalability available on the AWS platform ensures that you are always on top of the game. With scalable WordPress hosting services, the client will enjoy a 24/7 high availability WordPress presence. On top of that, you get the value for your money.
Conduct Regular Audits
Finally, we conduct regular content audits to ensure that your site performance is not compromised. Audits will reveal the site’s current weaknesses and strengths. As such, you will be able to maximize the advantages and improve on the weak areas. By doing so, your standing on the market as a reputable site is strengthened and the marketing strategy enhanced. Therefore, by keeping track of the site’s performance, you won’t miss valuable opportunities to enhance WordPress scalability and reach new audiences.
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