DFS goes with Rackspace managed cloud to better handle website traffic

DFS resorts to cloud to help handle spikes in online demand

Furniture chain DFS has shifted to Rackspace in a bid to better handle spikes in online demand during its busiest trading days.

The company claims that it has seen an average 34 per cent increase in online sales on its busiest days over the past six months. This follows a shift of its core ecommerce operation to a managed cloud environment.

Rackspace now provides a ‘peak planning' service to help the company to ensure its website can always keep pace with demand from online shoppers.

To do this, Rackspace used IBM's V8 WebSphere Commerce platform hosted on VMware infrastructure to ensure it could give the company the capacity it needs. The service went live in September 2016 as part of a wider digital transformation initiative at the company and on its busiest days handled an increase of 68 per cent visitor traffic at peak times.

Russell Harte, group technology director at DFS, said the numbers underlined how important the online channel has become to the company and the importance of ensuring it is always available.

"The online channel has never been more important to our business, where customer expectations surrounding service are rightly very high," he said.

"Our relationship with Rackspace over the past five years has allowed us to continually grow our offering by taking advantage of cloud technologies. Being able to talk to people who have the right mix of technical knowledge and business insight makes our lives so much easier."

Not only do more customers access the website but the firm has also rolled out tablets to staff in showrooms, to ensure they can always show customers the widest range of options, also increasing demands on the firm's website.

Harte said focusing on ideas like this was made possible by calling on the expertise of firms like Rackspace.

"The insight offered by Rackspace makes this easy to manage, allowing us to focus on key business objectives rather than IT maintenance".

Darren Norfolk, managing director of Rackspace UK said the work done with DFS underlined the impact the cloud is having in all kinds of business arenas and the benefits it can offer.

"Cloud technology is transforming the retail industry, allowing brands to move beyond just physical stores to offering customers a whole host of online shopping choices," he said.