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Don't Panic! How to launch a large-scale websit...

Don't Panic! How to launch a large-scale website confidently and successfully

Launch-days can be stressful, particularly when the project’s key stakeholders are keeping an extra keen eye on how things are going. Back in May 2017, my team felt this pressure all too well as we relaunched the website of billion-pound UK retailer, Matalan, on our own ecommerce platform, SHIFT. As exciting as it was, there were tense moments as we opened the floodgates and let an unprecedented amount of traffic begin hitting the site in an instant.

In this talk, I’ll step through some of the technical and non-technical lessons that we learned in the process, and leave you better prepared and more confident when doing the same.

Talk given at DevOps Tallinn – 17th May 2018

Ryan Townsend

May 17, 2018
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Transcript

  1. Don’t Panic! How to launch a large-scale website confidently and

    successfully Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash DevOps Tallinn 2018
  2. “Almost all the cases where I've heard of a system

    that was built as a microservice system from scratch, it has ended up in serious trouble.” – Martin Fowler, ThoughtWorks CTO
  3. • Use real metrics and logged user behaviour • Use

    a wide variety of metrics, not just traffic • Post-test validate the metrics at source
  4. • Build a trusting relationship with stakeholders • Understand their

    metrics • Get their perspective • Determine authority
  5. • System monitoring
 – infrastructure & client-side • Client /

    stakeholder dashboards & reporting
 – see what they see • Customer engagement
 – social media, customer support • Instant access to logs
 – filterable, searchable
  6. Above shows how New Relic tracked a 3rd party script

    harming site performance but the server-side was fine.
  7. • What could go wrong? • Who would you escalate

    to? • How would you solve? • What people do you need access to? • What systems do you need access to?
  8. • Expect issues • Keep a level-head • Remain professional

    • You’re an expert – you’ve got this
  9. • Gather actual real metrics & usage patterns • Revisit

    your load tests and re-assess • Re-run load tests for future releases • Ship some safe releases • Ship small releases, often