Chinese health nets make good use of the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the cloud platform

"For us, convenience is more important than price. In particular, the user's preferences are very fickle, we are still groping, it is difficult to predict which news will cause traffic surge, Windows Azure is different from the traditional IDC and stereotyped service content, in the high availability and investment cost performance best, the best to meet our convenience needs. Lin Jiaqing, general manager of Chinese Health Network

Chinese Health Network to provide the most complete 14 major news division, professional Health care information, as well as the hottest topic of fever, partners, including Yahoo!, MSN Taiwan, Ettoday News Cloud, Yam Yam, Sina, Ju Heng Network and other well-known portals. Visitors to the Chinese Health Network (Unique User;uu), from the first month of the daily average of 5,000 people, multiple growth to the current monthly 2 million people, page browsing times (page VIEW;PV) also reached 5 million per month, one of the goals this year is sprint membership of up to 50 million people.

Business requirements

Founded in August 2011, the Chinese Health Network, the three major shareholders have a medical system, marketing public relations and network shopping platform expertise background, after the first launch in late December 2011, immediately obtained and Yahoo! to discuss cooperation opportunities, and finally win the reason for the company's operating team and professional background.

The Chinese health Network has an average of 15 years of editorial group, writing at least 30 news every day, different from other websites published or rewritten press releases, or even work-study collation of information, and thus widely known for the use of the network station. The Chinese health Network wants to be a fair type of health portal, changing the way users can only rely on searching for health information, including misinformation or marketing tactics.

The cognition and persistence of "professional" is not only embodied in the powerful editing group, but also in the technical side. Since its inception, the Chinese Health Network has not set up an IT staff, including web site development, all of it work is fully owned by Wo Shing Digital technology.

However, the cooperation with Yahoo! not only allows traffic to multiply, but also to achieve a number of performance indicators required by each other, such as: PV in three months to achieve 300,000 per day, within a year of 1 million per day, and service level agreement (AGREEMENT;SLA).

Wo Sheng Digital technology yumin that the Chinese health Network was originally to take the internal self-built server with the telecommunications company's network services, but the cooperation case not only requires that the system architecture must be highly available (high availability), but also in line with the Chinese Health Network's own cost assessment and budget control, Can be said to be a lot of challenges.

Solution

At the outset, the Network data Center (Internet CENTER;IDC), which built the computer room or leased the telecom industry, was the two option for the Chinese Health Network. But in September 2012, the Chinese Health Network made a third decision to adopt Windows Azure.

Lin Jiaqing said: It is not our maxleaf, should be referred to professional people to deal with. Choosing Windows Azure is the same thing, of course, price, stability, and the flexibility to adjust resource allocations at any time are key to attracting us. 」

In the case of a self-built computer room, in terms of the SLA required by the cooperation case, the purchase of the machine is at least million of the investment in the Take-off, the subsequent horizontal expansion (scale out) or upward extension (scale up) will also form a hidden worry. As for rental services, it is subject to the inability of domestic service providers to provide sufficient information on fees and services, and the need to communicate with each other through the business staff is too time-consuming and often overlooked.

By contrast, Windows Azure's service content and billing model is open and transparent, allowing the Chinese health network to accurately anticipate costs, for example, to test costs by 300,000 PV per day. On the other hand, the development environment of the Chinese Health Network exclusively adopted the Microsoft Solution, but the domestic service provider did not provide. NET 4.0 support at that time, Windows Azure became the most suitable running platform.

Yumin said the process of moving from a self-built server to Windows Azure was a smooth one, with the technical architecture moving from entity to cloud, but not so much as to complete the necessary modifications and adjustments within a week. In mid-October 2012, the Chinese Health Network completed site removal and stress testing work, with the Yahoo! Joint brand new website officially online. The first month of the online UU has nearly 700,000, to the fourth month has reached 2 million, February 2013 PV also exceeded 5 million.

In the process, Microsoft's professional consultants also provided sufficient assistance, such as: Online calculator parameter setting recommendations, to assist in the Yahoo! requirements of the stress test. In the course of the test, the Chinese health Network also found that Windows Azure has a mechanism to prevent distributed interrupt Service attacks (distributed denial of Service;ddos), helping to further ensure the stable operation of the site.

Lin Jiaqing pointed out that the current focus is to cultivate netizens to the Chinese Health Network to browse health information habits, new services will be published in the second quarter of this year, including the need for users to appoint doctors online to consult to obtain personalized health information and basic knowledge, as well as to provide registration services and real-time consultation progress enquiries in conjunction with small clinics. The Chinese Health Network will also plan to launch the online shopping mall, providing a complete service that allows netizens to "see, Ask and buy health".

Benefit

Meet both cost and SLA requirements

In the Chinese Health Network and Yahoo! Cooperation case, for PV and UU indicators, as well as SLAs have clear requirements, and must pass the stress test. However, the investment in the construction of the computer room at least millions of take-off, to the domestic service providers to hire IDC, but also face the service standard and billing information problems. Windows Azure enables the Chinese health network to accurately anticipate cost expenditures with an open and transparent service content and billing model, for example: a trial fee of 300,000 PV per day. At the same time, also help the Chinese health Network to successfully complete the pressure test, with the default mechanism of preventing DDoS, to ensure the stability of the site operation.

To make it easy to be fickle

At present, the Chinese Health Net each month UU is 2 million, PV is 5 million, with the current use of the resource structure can support 4,000 or 5,000 people at the same time, on the line for four months, has also been adjusted to the growth of traffic in Windows Azure using the size and number of virtual machines, Immediate response to the convenience of actual demand is far better than investment in the acquisition of machinery.

Lin Jiaqing said: "For us, convenience is more important than price." In particular, the user's preferences are very fickle, we are still groping, it is difficult to predict which news will cause traffic surge, Windows Azure is different from the traditional IDC and stereotyped service content, in the high availability and investment cost performance best, the best to meet our convenience needs. 」

Flexibility of flexible adjustment

After cooperating with Yahoo!, the flow of Chinese health nets not only doubled, but also often increased unexpectedly. For example: The Chinese health Network of a certain news on the homepage of Yahoo!, the site will inevitably be with the amount of violence; In addition, such as a health research attention, or special festivals such as the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday and start day, will make the site traffic instantaneous explosion.

The Windows Azure cache mechanism is an essential tool for high-traffic websites and one of the services currently used by the Chinese Health Network. In addition, the Chinese Health Network also plans to adopt an automatic extension (auto scaling) mechanism to account for the sudden increase in traffic.

Solution Overview

Company Name: Chinese Health Net
Country/region: Taiwan
Industry: Network Services

Customer Profile: Founded in August 2011, the Chinese Health Network to professional health type portal for the appeal, to provide the most complete 14 major news division, professional Health care information, as well as the hottest topic of fever, the cooperation object includes several well-known portal sites.

Facing the challenge: Wo Sheng Digital technology yumin that the Chinese health Network was originally to take the internal self-built server with the telecommunications company's network services approach, but the cooperation case not only requires the system architecture must have high availability (availability), but also to meet the Chinese health Network's own cost assessment and budget control, Can be said to be a lot of challenges.

Benefit:
• Meet both cost and SLA requirements
• To facilitate due to fickle
Flexible adjustment flexibility
Flexible adjustment flexibility