I remember back before we launched I was so worried that TC/Digg/Reddit traffic would bring the server down and I'd be a laughing stock. Then we launched, and...
Nothing happened. I mean, we got the traffic and all that, but the only way you would have known was to look at Google Analytics. The site was screaming fast (way faster than any competitor) and it was a pretty uneventful day for my sysadmin hat.
It was then I decided that maybe you don't have to architect some masterfully optimized site to survive traffic surges... you just have to use common sense and everything will be fine.
Ha - I still remember that night/week. Tom and I were so worried that we took turns staying awake to make sure the Boogie Monster wouldn't take down TicketStumbler. I think I ended up sleeping 10 hours in 4 nights and puking my brains out before we gave our demo day rehearsal presentation later that week.
We had a similar experience with Twiddla. It just plain handled all the traffic that TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, LifeHacker and 100Shiki could throw at it, and all the traffic that came from winning SXSW too. Never moved the CPU over 15%.
The strange thing is that it was almost exactly the same magnitude of traffic that stopped Twitter dead in its tracks a year earlier, and subsequently gave them a ton of media attention.
Sounds like maybe there is some strategic benefit to falling down under load in a spectacular way!
Nothing happened. I mean, we got the traffic and all that, but the only way you would have known was to look at Google Analytics. The site was screaming fast (way faster than any competitor) and it was a pretty uneventful day for my sysadmin hat.
It was then I decided that maybe you don't have to architect some masterfully optimized site to survive traffic surges... you just have to use common sense and everything will be fine.