Ok, that subject line is probably a little unfair, but as you can probably tell by now if you’re an avid reader of this blog (who am I kidding!), I like punchy subject lines.
Today for the first time, some Scottish schoolchildren were able to retrieve their exam results online, thanks to the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority). Unfortunately though, yet again for the public sector, it appears they failed to anticipate demand for the service (anyone remember the 2001 census site in 2003, it took them 7 months to fix it).
I can appreciate the issue though, do you spend a fortune in capital expenditure on equipment to ensure it stays up, and risk going over budget (funny that, a public sector project going overbudget *snigger*), or do you stick to the budget and take a gamble on the performance of the site, which is what has happened here.
Thankfully in the future (and hopefully next year with the exam results), the SQA will be able to talk to someone like ourselves, who will be able to provision them whatever computing power they require for the time period they need it, and probably far more cost effective than a traditional dedicated server solution.
Tony.
