How does [site] handle server load during peak hours?

We’ve been building in capacity at the back end with elastic cloud hosting, which expands to accommodate high-volume traffic, just as highways automatically add lanes during peak hours. We cache data effectively, ensuring that no one has to wait for pages to load when thousands of users are logging in or reviewing strategy. And we keep a close eye on our site during major events, so we can fix any issues quickly and efficiently. At all times, our forums are humming along without interruption, so you’re never disappointed when you need answers right away – especially during important matches and tournaments. In other words, we do the work beforehand to ensure that the site is well equipped to handle bursts of activity.

Our servers are designed to scale, with cloud-based storage providing space to accommodate increases as needed during tournaments. In addition, our popular pages are cached and the load distributed across several server machines. Our servers’ performance is always being monitored; in advance of any potential problem, we adjust settings to head off trouble before it begins. This ensures that users’ experience will be seamless, regardless of whether hundreds or thousands of people join at once.

We have an auto-scaling cloud architecture. When the system detects increased usage, more resources are automatically allocated (like utility companies bringing in additional generators or engines). We will be spinning up extra nodes on our servers during major tournament days, and also using CDN networks to move static resources away from our main servers. In short, we monitor our system’s performance closely (with alerts), and have successfully supported tournaments involving more than 10,000 concurrent participants in the past. There are two caveats – ensure you optimize your database (we offer some advice on this, below) and that your cache has sufficient capacity.

When it’s really busy, we scale our servers up and down to meet demand – kind of like turning on more check-outs at the grocery store. For major events, we do additional planning and allocate more hardware in advance. We monitor activity closely, and if we need more resources suddenly, the cloud infrastructure allows us to quickly scale out. We also have our engineers constantly monitoring user response times and latency to ensure a seamless gaming experience. We’ve been bitten by this before so we know it’s very important. The key is being prepared.