Web-User Magazine: 'Business websites should be able to cope with traffic spikes'

15:56 4th February 2009

Business websites should make sure they are capable of handling spikes in online traffic, according to Web-User Magazine.

Ben Camm-Jones, news editor at the magazine, said that businesses which failed to cope during sudden surges in traffic could find their potential customers turning to the competition instead.

He added that the expense of installing the relevant servers was sometimes hard to justify given the rarity of traffic spikes, but at the same time failing to make the necessary arrangements could be costly as well.

Mr Camm-Jones said: "If the peaks are very, very high then site performance is likely to suffer unless the site owner has invested in enough server capacity to deal with them."

The editor said that certain firms could be enlisted to test server capacity and to help predict when spikes might occur.

Computer training could help business owners to form a better understanding of their technical requirements.

Research from Hitwise has revealed that internet usage surged by over ten per cent in the UK on February 2nd as heavy snow forced many people to stay at home.