More than just quick
sound bites, the following stories are from loyal
Hostway customers who discovered the importance
of having a trusted leader host their Web sites.
“When we did
our own hosting, it would cost us
around $5,000 per year to maintain
the system as well as the hidden
costs of staff required to maintain
the systems driving that figure
higher. Now, our IT team is freed
up to handle other activities, including
daily website updates.” Leonie
Edwards, Systems Administrator,
SWAP Library Network.
Libraries have always been considered
a trustworthy, safe and familiar environment
but, today, greater access by the public
to online information has opened up
new opportunities to provide a compelling
consumer experience while resulted in
avenues for potential cost efficiency.
In particular seniors, students, jobseekers
and the disabled are using the Internet
at libraries to access a variety of
resources primarily for email, electronic
registration, distance education, research
and training. As the skill level of
the community increases libraries are
continually reviewing and improving
the facilities that are offered to meet
consumer needs.
Armed with a mandate to provide free
and equitable access to information
to all members of the community, the
SWAP Library network (SWAP) was established
in 1989 to provide a computerised library
management system for the councils of
St Peters, Walkerville and Prospect
in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.
In 1999, amalgamation between councils
expanded the network to include the
Norwood and Payneham libraries. Today,
the libraries of Athelstone, Campbelltown,
Norwood, Payneham, Prospect, St Peters
and Walkerville serve 58,000 residents
and allow members to borrow from any
or all of the libraries.
SWAP’s website (http://www.swaplib.sa.gov.au)
provides online access to a library
catalogue which houses a collective
database of 103,000 bibliographic records.
The organisation’s Dynix library
information management systems enable
users to access catalogues online, be
advised, make reservations and review
other notices by email and enjoy easy
access to a larger range of materials
due to regular courier runs between
the participating libraries.
Indeed, since SWAP placed its catalogue
online, it has seen a 400 per cent increase
in consumer requests. This figure increased
yet further when the SWAP Community
Information website was launched in
2002 to provide access to a wealth of
local community information.
However, with the ever-increasing demand
for online access by the community,
including the need to operate and maintain
a secure, round-the-clock service, SWAP
realised it needed to provide a more
effective online infrastructure to meet
the needs of a technologically literate
community and acquire additional resources
and support in the process.
Following a comprehensive review of
its online infrastructure, SWAP decided
to outsource its web hosting requirements
cancelling a pressing need to buy new
server and software kit.
“We reviewed three vendors and
were looking for a hosting provider
with a good track record in service,
support, reliability and security. Our
evaluation process concluded that Hostway
was clearly the best solution for our
organisation," said Leonie Edwards,
Systems Administrator for the SWAP Network.
Founded in 1998, specialist hosting
provider Hostway maintains over 400,000
domains for 300,000 customers around
the world. The company has 250,191 square
metres of data centre space in nine
international operation centres. The
company’s significant investment
in network infrastructure means that
clients can leverage the best possible
hosting solutions and be confident of
the highest quality service and support.
The hosting provider’s ability
to offer a fully integrated Microsoft
solution is a major advantage for SWAP.
It means the site can be run using one
operating system rather than having
to change between different systems,
making site administration much easier.
SWAP transfers approximately 5 gigabytes
of Internet data per month. Edwards
says that moving onto Hostway’s
servers made a substantial difference
in managing such a large amount of traffic.
“The website is an important
tool in promoting the library and community
information services and provides the
community with a valuable resource.
Upgrading to a bigger bandwidth link
and more powerful servers has increased
the throughput of the site significantly.
We were previously limited by the power
of the machines and bandwidth restrictions.
Now the machines have significant reserves
left so that they can handle large spikes
in traffic with no problems.”
Another important development in SWAP’s
library services has been the availability
of remote access to a variety of online
databases. This has provided enormous
benefits to the community in that information
can be accessed at a time and in a place
that meets the needs of the user. However,
when dealing with personal contact details,
security is of paramount concern. Hostway’s
strong managed firewall solution and
secure premises were also important
factors in SWAP’s confidence to
outsource its hosting.
The high security levels offered by
Hostway are supported by a fully redundant
network infrastructure that guarantees
99.9 per cent uptime. In addition, Hostway
offers 24/7 live support and prides
itself on quick response times when
help is needed.
“When we did our initial review,
Hostway seemed to offer good service
and we contacted their referees all
of whom indicated that their support
was good though quite frankly we haven’t
had the occasion to need it,”
says Edwards.
Another benefit of outsourcing its
web hosting to Hostway is that SWAP
can automatically gain regular statistics
and data on numbers accessing the website,
the most popular types of information
requested and the demand in subject
area at any particular point in time.
Edwards says that the site regularly
gets around 100-120 hits on a daily
basis. This information is then used
for corporate reporting into councils
and bi-annual reports into SWAP’s
chief executive ensuring SWAP formally
complies with government legislation
on corporate reporting standards while
enabling the library network to plan
for new product acquisitions and facilities.
“When we did our own hosting,
it would cost us around $5,000 per year
to maintain the system as well as the
hidden costs of staff required to maintain
the systems driving that figure higher.
Now, our IT team is freed up to handle
other activities, including daily website
updates.
“We just don’t need to
worry about the server anymore. We’re
now redirecting savings back into new
features and greater efficiency for
the public. We can keep the software
up-to-date, investigate new technologies
and remove the hidden administration
costs involved in in-house web hosting.
“Outsourcing to Hostway has provided
better value - its more efficient, works
well and is more reliable. It saves
money,” concludes Edwards.
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