New CCDC Website Released
On Monday afternoon, our new SharePoint-powered website completed its public beta test phase and was officially released. After months of testing, incorporating user feedback and implementing enhancements, we are very pleased to be able to announce formally this first version of the site. It is now accessible via our standard www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk web address.
The technical changes needed to facilitate this release went very smoothly, and resulted in virtually no interruption of service. We took this opportunity to roll out new load balancing capabilities, which are now responsible for managing all incoming traffic to our website and most of our public web services. This offers significant benefits through the centralised management of our web services and redirects, and should offer maximum flexibility to respond to changing requirements in future, without disrupting access to existing systems. You shouldn’t notice the difference – but we will all be able to deploy new features with a high degree of confidence that acceptable service levels will be maintained.
We are also working hard to refine and optimise our network and server infrastructure in order to ensure we can scale to meet demand and deliver the best possible service and experience for our global user base, as our offerings develop. As part of this process, we are currently conducting live cloud trials for our major web services. We are particularly interested in the capability this brings to scale dynamically our service provision in response to changes in demand, to ensure that delivery remains responsive even at times of peak usage.
I would encourage you to stop by and visit the website regularly to see what new content and features we have available for you. Please continue providing your valuable feedback on our new site, via the following page: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/feedback . We will continue to work hard to incorporate your suggestions, and have released several features/improvements over the last few weeks as a result, with many more to follow.
This major web site development process at CCDC has been enormously rewarding – we hope you enjoy exploring the site as much as we did building it.
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