Johannesburg, 29 Nov 2021
Managed IT and cloud service consultancy and Microsoft Gold Managed Cloud Solution Provider, Crimson Line, assisted OneDayOnly.co.za in migrating their infrastructure to Microsoft Azure to enable the leading e-tailer to scale to and meet the demands of customers on Black Friday.
Louis Koen, owner of Crimson Line and specialist Microsoft 365 and Azure project manager, says: “The move to Azure enabled OneDayOnly to maximise the Black Friday opportunity this year, scaling to accommodate the dramatic increase of site traffic on the day.
"The company also benefits from enhanced disaster recovery and has a solid foundation for future innovation and growth,” he notes.
Daily deals site OneDayOnly first launched in 2010 and now has over 2 million daily newsletter subscribers. With over 400 000 people using the OneDayOnly app and over 600 000 followers on social media, the company has grown from selling one braai on its first day to a leading e-commerce player selling thousands of products daily.
During the lockdown, the company’s phenomenal growth increased, with spokesperson Matthew Leighton stating that the brand experienced 30% – 40% growth in June 2020 when compared to the preceding four months.
On top of the growth experienced during the lockdown, the company also saw growth thanks to its innovations and increasingly appealing daily deals. The company made waves when it introduced 100% off Black Friday offers among its other heavily discounted deals, prompting tens of thousands of bargain hunters to flock to the site and stay there, in the hopes of being first to snatch up the free goods. The success of the promotion and the subsequent, exponential increase in traffic caused the site to become unstable.
To mitigate the risk of repeated incidents, OneDayOnly.co.za approached Crimson Line to provide them with a hosting solution with high scalability that could handle traffic on big demand days like Black Friday.
Crimson Line’s expert team advised OneDayOnly on modernising their infrastructure, migrating it to Azure to deliver scale, efficient disaster recovery and better infrastructure cost controls. “This was not a simple lift and shift: There were certain complexities; however, because we are a Microsoft Gold Managed Cloud Solution Provider, we boast the benefit of direct access to international experts at Microsoft, who offer insight and support where necessary,” says Koen.
The successful migration has positioned OneDayOnly to offer bigger and better promotions and innovate further in the e-commerce space. “Black Friday is a colossal retail holiday, often bringing in a large percentage of annual revenue and so retailers cannot afford to have their infrastructure fail during that crucial time. With the right partners and the right infrastructure in the cloud, there is no need for them to fail,” says Koen.
Crimson Line will continue to support OneDayOnly and further modernise their infrastructure so they can offer an ever-improving service to their customers.
Christian Oberhofer, Director of OneDayOnly.co.za, said the Crimson Line team’s professionalism, dedication and unwavering support are what sets them apart from other service providers. “I cannot recommend them highly enough,” he said.
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