Technology refresh ensures 100 per cent web site availability

EasyJet has upgraded its web architecture to achieve 100 per cent web site availability during high usage peaks.

The airline, which sells approximately 98 per cent of its tickets online, has also deployed additional a virtual private network to allow remote access for technical support staff.

The upgrade follows the re-architecting of its web site infrastructure to two new hosted facilities in Docklands and Reading.

As one of Europe’s biggest Internet retailers, EasyJet developed a highly scalable and redundant architecture with multiple sites and connectivity paths to ensure availability and business continuity.

It upgraded to a fully redundant pair of F5 BIG-IP 6400 products to support the 32 web servers across its two facilities. In addition, two FirePass SSL VPN 4100s offer support staff secure remote access to infrastructure for routine maintenance and fault resolution.

It required a simple sequential switch-over to maintain availability for customers.

The refresh is providing 100 per cent availability for its online web site, which processes 40Mbps of customer transactions, effectively filling a plane every 20 seconds at peak times.

EasyJet IT manager Andy Caddy says he was satisfied with the performance of the BIG-IP system which is running substantially below capacity, providing scope for future growth as the company expands.

‘We also required a solution that provided clientless VPN access as we may need to provide secure access to third parties and having them maintain a local access client is problematic,’ he said.

EasyJet books flights for more than 28m people every year as well as millions of enquiries.