Zeus gives Virgin Holidays online edge
Virgin Holidays' customers using the tour operator's website are getting a faster, more reliable service thanks to Zeus Technology and its leading ZXTM traffic management software - a powerful, fault-tolerant and high- performance
Virgin Holidays' customers using the tour operator's website are getting a faster, more reliable service thanks to Zeus Technology and its leading ZXTM traffic management software - a powerful, fault-tolerant and high- performance load balancing solution to improve the overall resiliency, security and performance of web-based applications.
When it needed to improve the efficiency of its web booking infrastructure, Virgin Holidays turned to Zeus to help meet increased online demand and maximize revenue opportunities for the New Year - the travel industry's busiest time for holiday bookings.
Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager (ZXTM) provided the ideal solution. It is the only integrated software of its kind optimized for 64-bit hardware and combining traffic management technology, advanced security and application optimization. Deployed to load balance Virgin Holidays existing web booking server infrastructure, ZXTM is managing site traffic more effectively, improving overall performance and giving its customers a simple, seamless and secure means of booking the holiday of their choice.
Behind the scenes, ZXTM intelligently routes traffic away from busy or inactive servers responsible for running the site. Measuring response times of back-end machines and employing a 'cache affinity' algorithm, it ensures web traffic and online requests for information are shared evenly between servers based on real-time capacity to handle load. ZXTM also permits SSL offload which provides universal compatibility with web and application server platforms, can be easily scaled to accommodate any size of site and removes the need to load special software or drivers on the servers.
Robin Fitton, Head of IT Operations at Virgin Holidays explains more, "The online travel market is becoming very competitive and improving the management of our site was a mission-critical and complex project which had to be delivered on time. Working with Zeus and using ZXTM has dramatically improved our web browsing and booking response times. The technology has significantly reduced the risk of failure of our web booking infrastructure - since implementation three months ago we have experienced zero downtime. The flexibility of ZXTM also ensures that we can add extra servers to deal with future online demand as appropriate."
Steve Palmer, vice-president of marketing at Zeus Technology said, "Using our technology, any business around the globe can improve the functionality of its web-based infrastructures. We are delighted to be working with Virgin Holidays to maintain the reliability, security and performance of its online holiday business and give its customers a superior e-service to match the overall Virgin brand experience."
The solution deployed for Virgin Holidays comprises Linux-based 64-bit AMD Opteron processor HP servers to run Zeus ZXTM and is also compatible with Microsoft Server technology and Windows ISA servers.
Founded in 1985, Virgin Holidays is one of the world's most successful transatlantic tour operators carrying over 350,000 holiday makers each year to destinations all over the world.
For further information please visit www.zeus.com.
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