cloud powered wordpress: improving performance, search and user experience for wordpress

blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Cloud Powered Wordpress

Agenda– Background– Performance– Search– User Experience– Q&A

How the Cloud can Improve WordpressPerformance, Search, and User Experience


Background

• Education– Georgia Tech Computer Eng.

• Career– Internet Security Systems IPO IBM– Teleo Microsoft– Koders Black Duck Software– Profinity, LifeClient, eCityDeals, others FAIL


Koders.com

• Search engine for software developers

• Timeline:– Launched in 2005– Funded in 2006 (Founders Fund, Angels)– Acquired in April 2008


Breitbart

• Center-right news and group-blog network

• Proprietary LAMP Newswire Site

• Wordpress MU Blogs– Big Hollywood– Big Government– More coming soon…

• 20MM+ PV/month


Performance: Cloud Scaling

• 3 Generations of WP Scaling Guidance

• Cloud scaling– maximum scalability– minimum cost– Elasticity – supports huge traffic spikes without

‘peak load provisioning’


Performance: 1st Generation – App-Tier Scaling

MySQL

Apache

Users• Approach– 1 DB– Many Web Servers

• Challenges– DB bottleneck– PHP/Memory bound

web servers

• 100s of concurrent connections


Performance: 2nd Generation - Horizontal Scaling

MySQL

Write master

Read Slaves

Apache CDNStatic Files

Users• Approach

– Scale Database– CDN for Static Files– Lots of App Servers

• ½ Cloud

• Challenges– Scaling MySQL is hard– Provisioning Servers is Hard– Need enough hardware for

peak loads – expensive $$$

• 1000s of concurrent connections


Users

Performance: 3rd Generation Cloud Scaling

MySQL

Apache

CDNWeb Pages

• Approach:• All requests (static and dynamic pages) thru

CDN

• Implementation:• Apache Content Expiration Tuning• Dynamic page elements refactored from PHP

to JS (ie ‘Welcome <User>’)

• 10,000s of concurrent connections

• Challenges• Apache content expiration tuning• 1-N minute staleness for pages

• Handles traffic spikes effortlessly

• Pay only for bandwidth, not hardware


Performance: Cloud Scaling In Practice

• BigGovernment.com Launched this week

• 1.3 MM Pageviews in first 24 hours

• 2 web servers• 1 DB Server*

Users

MySQL

Apache

CDNWeb Pages


Performance: Cloud Scaling Summary• Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are a cloud service

• Leverage CDN in ‘Reverse Proxy’ configuration (not just static files)

• 1 Minute CDN caching policy provides tremendous gains

• Refactor dynamic page elements from server-side PHP to Javascript (ie ‘Welcome <User>’)

• Add Elastic growth (and shrink) to your network


Search: Only Two Types of Webmasters1. Understand that search is a critical part of their

site’s user experience

2. Don’t understand that search is a critical part of their site’s user experience

Search is a critical part of your site’s user experience


Search: Wordpress Search Options• Out-of-box Wordpress Search

– Uses MySQL Full-text– Barely Functional – not

implemented or de-emphasized in most themes

• Search Everything Pluginhttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search-everything/

– MySQL Full-text + Comments, Pages, etc

• Sphinx– Good Full-text Features

• Lijit– Full-text +

Web 2.0 Features

• Solr– Full-text +

Web 2.0 + Guided Nav + Content Analysis + + +


Search: Solr Not Adopted by WP Community

• Why Solr?– Feature-complete, mature, robust search system– Largest community of users and extensions– Production tested:

CNET, Netflix, YP.com, Digg, AOL, Disney, NASA…

• Why NOT Solr?– Platform mismatch: Java-based– Different skillset required

• Can the Cloud Help?


Search: Solr for Wordpress

• Solr for Wordpress Pluginhttp://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/solr-for-wordpress/ – created by Matt Weber– Index Pages, Posts, Comments– Full Solr 1.4 Integration

• PowCloud – Hosted Solrhttp://powcloud.com/– Currently in Private Beta– Twitter.com/powcloud


Search: S4WP Features

• Full-text search w/ stemming, boolean searches, advanced queries

• Guided Search, Facetted Navigation


Search: S4WP Features

• AJAX-Autocomplete

• ‘Did-you-mean’ spell checking

• Improved Results Layout (highlighting, paging, sort)


Search: S4WP Similar Content Widget

• Links up to 5 of the most related posts

• Benefits:– Decrease bounce rate– Increase PV/visit


Search: Future

• Re: Beau Lebens @ Automattic– More searchable content coming up:

• BuddyPress – Social content, friends, updates• bbPress – Forums

• Real-time Search – ‘Next Big Thing’

• Search is the command line of web


Search: Summary

• Search is a critical part of your site’s user experience– Increase pageviews– Decrease bounce rate– Help users find what they are looking for

• Solr is most feature complete search platform

• Solr4WP Plugin + PowCloud = Plug and Play SolrNow: In Beta


User Experience:Blogs as Conversations• Commenting is the lifeblood of the best blogs

• More complex than ever:– SPAM– User management– Authentication– Moderation– Threading– Ratings– Social media integration– Syndication

• Complexity + Social Media Integration + Syndication = Perfect Candidate for Cloud


User Experience:Cloud-based Commenting Providers for WP

• IntenseDebate• Disqus• Echo

• Vendors Battling for Marketshare– Price is right– Feature competition good for you– All strong contenders


3 Ways to Cloud Power Your WordPressWhat’s Next?

1. Find a Reverse-Proxy Capable CDNhttp://silvermako.com/cdn-quote

2. Signup for PowCloud Betahttp://powcloud.com

3. Choose a Cloud-Comment Provider


Fini

• Darren Rush– [email protected]– Twitter.com/darrenrush– darrenrush.com

cloud powered wordpress: improving performance, search and user experience for wordpress

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