The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has upgraded its web site infrastructure to improve performance and reliability in preparation for increased online donations.

The charity, which funds heart research in the UK, expects online donations will increase in 2006 above the £1.5m raised in 2005, and wants its infrastructure to cope with extra funds pumped in by the public.

The site, www.bhf.org.uk, receives around 450,000 visitors each month and chose Globix to provide a hosting solution to improve web availability.

The supplier designed and implemented a bespoke hosting and security infrastructure, using best of breed technologies and Prince2 project management methodology.

Randy Perkins, web development manager at the BHF, says the charity wanted to guarantee 24x7 availability for the site.

‘Since Globix began hosting the site in March this year, we’ve not been let down once,’ he said.

Revenue generated by the site funds research, education and care and the BHF wanted high levels of security to protect financial information.

It now plans to concentrate on developing new web services.

‘We are going to focus on expanding the content on the site to include video to enhance the user’s experience by creating a more adventurous and interactive site,’ said Perkins.

‘We will look at adding to the services we offer BHF partners, including the possible development of extranets.’