create. deliver. promote. protect. The Need for Speed:

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1 create. deliver. promote. protect. The Need for Speed: The effect of Dynamic Site Acceleration on Australia s Web Performance.

2 The Need for Speed: The effect of Dynamic Site Acceleration on Australia s Web Performance Australians are in the top 5 populations of digital consumers in the world, with over 50% of Australians preferring to buy online*. If you are a pure-play online retailer, or even a bricks & clicks retailer, your success as an online business depends on the performance of your website down to the second. Page load delays can be the difference between a potential customer transacting on your site or your competitor s. Content Delivery Networks & Site Acceleration 15-30% of the world s web traffic is delivered over the Akamai platform. As a result, Akamai is constantly monitoring data to provide a comprehensive overview of the world s online behaviour. Below demonstrates how a Content Delivery Network (CDN) identifies the fastest and most reliable path available, between an Akamai edge server and the organisation s origin data centre. The below example shows route optimisation between Sydney and London. The public internet path produces 345ms latency and an 18.97% packet loss. In comparison, the Akamai path delivers only 282ms of latency and 0% packet loss. When you have a busy rush of visitors to your site and hundreds of clicks on the same dynamic application, a reduction in page load time can make all the difference to your potential customers. London Sydney Public internet path: 345 Ms latency, 18.97% packet loss. Akamai path: 282 Ms latency, 0% packet loss. The Need for Speed

3 Peak periods and performance Online promotions and the holiday season can be a harsh test for online retailers. How much investment is being allocated to preparing your platform to handle the increased load, in comparison to planning your marketing campaigns and sales incentives? Melbourne IT has over 15 years experience in managed digital platforms for mid market to enterprise organisations, including some of Australia s leading web sites. We are proud to partner with Akamai to deliver your organisation a fully managed and optimised web experience. Affectionately named Ivan, our Synthetic Benchmark Tool is constantly monitoring the performance of over 1600 URLs - including some of Australia s leading sites. We have taken a sample set of ecommerce sites and analysed the average page-load times between January 2013 and August Results have been segmented into those that are not currently using a CDN, vs those that are - for a comparative overview Page load time in Milliseconds No Akamai CDN Akamai CDN 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Average page load time for sites using Dynamic Site Acceleration vs. those not, per month, between January 2013 to August The Need for Speed 2

4 A picture is worth a thousand words, so we ll keep it quick. On average, sites that were not using a CDN were upto 16 x slower than sites using a CDN. It is also clear to see from the graph that there were considerable spikes in page load time throughout the year as opposed to sites using a CDN, which maintained a consistent performance throughout. The first major spike in performance can be seen during the month of March, where the average page load time for sites not using a CDN peaks at just under 1.4 seconds, compared to 55ms for sites using a CDN. March is the time that lastminute online shoppers prepare for the Easter long weekend; hopping online to search for holiday bookings, buying gifts, booking tickets a rush of traffic which some sites weren t prepared to handle. There is also an incline in page load time around the month of May, and peaking at the largest spike in July reaching almost 1.8 seconds. This could easily be attributed to the mid-year and end of financial year sales. The sales culminate in July, aligning with traditionally increased marketing activity around final reductions which could likely explain this surge in page load time. Consider this: a one second page delay decreases customer satisfaction by 16%, and 47% of consumers expect a page to load within two seconds. To further enforce this - 57% of online shoppers will abandon a site after 3 seconds**. These statistics were revealed in 2009 indicating that the new threshold of acceptability is likely to be a lot lower, as online consumers expectations increase. In comparison, if we look at the average of sites using a CDN there is clear and consistent performance throughout the eight months of monitoring. The average page load time remains below one tenth of a second, with the lowest average at 39.35ms in August. To put this in perspective the average time in which a human blinks their eye is ms. End users are no longer static at their computers to purchase online. Online shoppers want to be able to access agile, mobile and dynamic websites, any time, and any place. Convenience is key but this is worthless without a fast performing website that keeps up with the ever increasing demands of online retail. If your site is not performing as quickly as your competitors you will most likely lose the customer. Much of the focus of improving website performance is on the web platform itself, such as larger or faster-scaling servers, improved software and content optimisation. However this ignores the relationship of performance between the platform and visitors over the internet, solving only part of the problem. A Content Delivery Network increases the performance of a web site by extending the physicality of data to be as close as possible to every visitors individual location. Advanced CDNs, such as Akamai Dynamic Site Acceleration, include intellgent technology to optimise and secure delivery of both dynamic and static content; allowing you to deliver a rich user experience that is highly scalable and widely distributed. If you are serious about ensuring a successful online interaction for every user, every time, you need to consider end to end performance from your website right out to each and every visitor. This means enhancing your platform with a Content Delivery Network that optimises delivery of your web experience over the internet based on each visitor s individual scenario. The Need for Speed

5 For more information or for a real-time visualisation of how Akamai could improve your site s performance, Contact us - E: corporate.sales@melbourneit.com.au T: W: References: * Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2007) ** Akamai Technologies (2009) The Need for Speed

6 create. deliver. promote. protect.

/ BROCHURE / BEST PRACTICE FOR BENCHMARKING WEB & MOBILE SITE PERFORMANCE. By Melbourne IT Enterprise Services

/ BROCHURE / BEST PRACTICE FOR BENCHMARKING WEB & MOBILE SITE PERFORMANCE By Melbourne IT Enterprise Services WEB & MOBILE SITE PERFORMANCE The web continues to change and evolve, as do the demands of