Why do websites crash?

Recently, we spoke with a customer, we'll call him Derrick, who recounted his frustrating experience trying to book tickets for a popular musician in South Africa. After patiently waiting for the site to load, he encountered a familiar ERROR message just as he was about to purchase. When the tickets were released again later that evening, Derrick faced another crash. This experience inspired Derrick to ensure his clients avoid similar issues on their high-traffic websites by seeking reliable solutions to prevent costly downtime.

Why websites crash during busy periods and how to prevent it from happening to yours.

For eCommerce directors, surging online traffic is often a dream come true. More visitors mean more potential customers and sales. But sometimes, this can backfire—if your website isn’t prepared for the influx of users, the same traffic that’s supposed to be a sign of success can cause your site to crash, leading to lost sales and frustrated customers.

Why Do Websites Crash During Busy Periods?

Websites crash when demand exceeds the infrastructure’s capacity to handle it. Every time a visitor interacts with your site—adding items to their basket, searching for products, or entering payment details—your servers process these requests. But when traffic spikes, too many requests can overwhelm the system, causing the site to slow down or fail completely.

Here are some common reasons why this happens:

• Insufficient Server Resources: High traffic puts more strain on your website’s infrastructure than it can manage.
• Bottlenecks: Complex processes, such as checking product availability or processing payments, create points of congestion that slow down the system.
• Network Failures: Sometimes the issue isn’t with your website but with the broader network it relies on. For example, a failure in a key data network component, like optical transceivers can lead to outages.

Examples of Website Crashes Due to High Traffic

Website crashes often happen during major events like product launches, big sales, or viral moments, here are some examples:

• Coinbase’s Super Bowl Ad: The ad was so successful it caused a massive spike in traffic that crashed the website.
• Rakuten France: After appearing on national news, their traffic spiked 819% within minutes, overwhelming their system.

These events highlight the importance of having a robust infrastructure to handle unpredictable traffic spikes.

How to Prevent Crashes and Keep Your Website Running Smoothly

1. Scale Your Servers: Ensure your infrastructure can handle sudden traffic increases by scaling up servers during peak times.
2. Optimise Bottlenecks: Streamline processes like payment verification and database queries to avoid slowdowns.
3. Upgrade Network Components: Invest in high-quality network equipment to ensure your infrastructure can handle large volumes of data without failures.
4. Distribute Traffic: Use load balancers to spread traffic across multiple servers, avoiding overloading any one part of your system.

Why Large Companies Need Reliable Networks

For large companies, avoiding website crashes and downtime is essential. High traffic during sales events or media appearances can make or break a company’s revenue for the day. That’s why it’s crucial to invest in reliable network infrastructure like SFPWorx's high-quality optical transceivers, built to handle high demand. By ensuring your network is powered by robust, high-quality components, you can prevent downtime, keep customers happy, and maintain your sales momentum even during the busiest times.

High-quality network equipment, like the optical transceivers from SFPWorx, are essential for keeping your website running smoothly during traffic surges. By investing in reliable infrastructure, you can prevent crashes, maintain a seamless customer experience, and ensure your business is prepared for success.

P.S. Derrick eventually received his tickets ??