There has been doubt whether an opensource platform can really compete with commercial enterprise platforms. In our experience, it isn’t so much the platform, rather how it is set up and deployed that makes or breaks a site.
As an agency, we are platform agnostic – however when a client asks us to consider the Cost Benefits of a range of platforms, we tend to include wordpress as an option, not only due to its inherent capability for scale or growth, but its lack of large commercial fees that are hounded by other enterprise platforms.
Below we take you through our considerations for suggesting wordpress for enterprise.
WordPress: The Simplified Background
WordPress is an incredibly popular platform that is used by millions of small and medium businesses worldwide. The platform gained prominence because of its easy-to-use interface, an abundance of plug-ins and drag-and-drop builders (which initially attracted bloggers, photographers and small business owners) but is now used by all types of businesses, ranging from small start-ups to enterprise-level businesses and large corporations.
Underneath WordPress’s colourful exterior and simple user interface lies a powerful and scalable content management system (CMS) that primarily helps businesses manage web content, such as pages, blog posts, and images, but is also designed to enhance their scalability.
WordPress for Enterprise
There’s no doubt that all enterprise-level businesses must consider the long-term scalability of the platforms they are using in order for them to grow and develop. Other factors also include the ability of the CMS platform to integrate with on-premise or cloud-based B2C and B2B ecosystems.
Some examples of websites that require on-demand scalability include eCommerce and airline ticketing websites, where heavy traffic on the site is seasonal or cyclical, especially during holidays or events like black Friday sales.
Below, we consider how WordPress is able to meet the needs of businesses, while providing them with a platform to help them drive growth and ROI.
Key Considerations of Enterprise Businesses when choosing a CMS Platform
- Long-Term Scalability: WordPress is a highly scalable platform provided that the right infrastructure, resources and services are in place.
- Integration and Adaptability: Another key consideration for businesses is the ability of the content management system (CMS) to integrate with key applications and software like customer relationship management (CRM) and eCommerce platforms.
- Page Builders: Ease of access for non-technical users like marketing teams to easily update or create content on the website.
- Security: WordPress provides consistent security updates and releases to ensure that the CMS platform is secure. WordPress also has a number of available plugins dedicated to improving security.
- Support: WordPress also provides support for enterprises if they opt to host their website within their platform. WordPress also has a large community of vendors and agencies that provide support to businesses.
- User Controls: WordPress also has robust user roles and permissions that allow businesses more control over who can make changes or updates to specific sections of the site.
How to Ensure Scalability with WordPress
Scaling WordPress for enterprises is fairly simple and straightforward; as websites using the platform can easily handle high traffic, provided that the right infrastructure is in place.
1. WordPress Theme:
The WordPress theme can be a factor for scalability. Ensuring that the theme is properly structured and how it is configured in the database is key to ensuring the stability of the website during high-traffic times.
A good scalable theme also helps streamline the web development process. This means that it is structured in such a way that pages, modules or blocks can be reused as templates to aid in expanding the content of the website.
Another advantage of having a scalable theme for your WordPress website is that you don’t need to do intensive development whenever there is an update on the platform.
2. Horizontal Scalability:
Horizontal scalability involves adding more servers in the machine pool and is typically referred to as scaling out. This involves spreading the workload to more machines during unexpected heavy traffic or seasons of peak traffic on the website.
3. Vertical Scalability:
Vertical scalability involved adding more CPU, Memory and Storage in the servers to help the website handle heavier traffic and loads.
4. Database Optimisation:
To ensure that the website can handle the increased volume of traffic businesses can use caching methods to help minimise server requests. Caching and file optimisation helps optimise the database, especially during peak traffic times.
5. Scalable Hosting:
There are plenty of options on how to host a website, each has its pros and cons but typically enterprise websites with high traffic often opt for dedicated servers like the cloud-based AWS servers which provide greater scalability and granular monitoring of performance. Dedicated servers are great but can be prohibitively expensive. Other options are shared hosting and VPS hosting, both cost relatively less than dedicated servers but do not offer the same level of control and scalability.
Our team will help assess and provide recommendations on which solution best suits your current and projected needs, taking all of the above factors into account in our assessment.
How FastFwd can Help
Fastfwd provides WordPress development that helps businesses leverage the simplicity and scalability of the platform. At fastfwd, we can’t think of many better tools that businesses can use to scale than WordPress! It’s an especially useful tool for businesses in enterprise because it allows them to easily manage their website content, create pages, and keep their content fresh and up-to-date. WordPress’s extensive range of customisable themes and plugins open up the door for your business to display an engaging and visually appealing website. What we love most about WordPress though, is that it is incredibly easy to use and maintain, making it perfectly plausible for businesses to manage their website even without the need for a web developer. WordPress allows any business to quickly and easily create a functional website that meets their specific needs and requirements.
So, if WordPress is easy for any (even inexperienced) users to acclimatise to, why might you need our help? If you are a business that might be interested in scaling in the near future, then fastfwd’s collaborative WordPress approach ensures that you are involved in the entire development process from start to finish. This ensures that your ideas together with our expertise provide the best results to help achieve your business’ goals and objectives.
At fastfwd we provide bespoke theme development for WordPress that will help convey the values, mission and vision of your brand. Our expert developers are ‘technologically agnostic’, meaning we can quickly adapt the technology or development platform according to your needs and requirements. Our relationship does not have to end at the end of development either! We take pride in our post-development support and maintenance packages, by providing you with your own dedicated account team to ensure that your website stays updated and secure; while also supporting you with any queries or issues that you may have post development.
Check our our services to learn more about our WordPress and website development services and see how we can transform your ideas into a fully functional, impressive website that you can be proud of.