Cloud Powered Wordpress: Improving Performance, Search and User Experience for Wordpress

Cloud Powered Wordpress How the Cloud can Improve Wordpress Performance, Search, and User Experience Agenda – Background – Performance – Search – User Experience – Q&A blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Background • Education – Georgia Tech Computer Eng. • Career – Internet Security Systems  IPO  IBM – Teleo  Microsoft – Koders  Black Duck Software – Profinity, LifeClient, eCityDeals, others  blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Koders.com • Search engine for software developers • Timeline: – Launched in 2005 – Funded in 2006 (Founders Fund, Angels) – Acquired in April 2008 blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Breitbart • Center-right news and group-blog network • Proprietary LAMP Newswire Site • Wordpress MU Blogs – Big Hollywood – Big Government – More coming soon… • 20MM+ PV/month blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: Cloud Scaling • 3 Generations of WP Scaling Guidance • Cloud scaling – maximum scalability – minimum cost – Elasticity – supports huge traffic spikes without ‘peak load provisioning’ blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: 1st Generation – App-Tier Scaling • Approach Users – 1 DB – Many Web Servers Apache • Challenges – DB bottleneck – PHP/Memory bound web servers MySQL • 100s of concurrent connections blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: 2nd Generation - Horizontal Scaling • Approach Users – Scale Database – CDN for Static Files – Lots of App Servers CDN • ½ Cloud Apache Static Files • Challenges – Scaling MySQL is hard – Provisioning Servers is Hard MySQL – Need enough hardware for peak loads – expensive $$$ Write Read master Slaves • 1000s of concurrent connections blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: 3rd Generation Cloud Scaling • Approach: Users • All requests (static and dynamic pages) thru CDN • Implementation: • Apache Content Expiration Tuning CDN • Dynamic page elements refactored Web Pages from PHP to JS (ie ‘Welcome <User>’) • 10,000s of concurrent connections • Challenges Apache • Apache content expiration tuning • 1-N minute staleness for pages • Handles traffic spikes effortlessly MySQL • Pay only for bandwidth, not hardware blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: Cloud Scaling In Practice • BigGovernment.com Users Launched this week • 1.3 MM Pageviews in CDN first 24 hours Web Pages • 2 web servers Apache • 1 DB Server* MySQL blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Performance: Cloud Scaling Summary • Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are a cloud service • Leverage CDN in ‘Reverse Proxy’ configuration (not just static files) • 1 Minute CDN caching policy provides tremendous gains • Refactor dynamic page elements from server-side PHP to Javascript (ie ‘Welcome <User>’) • Add Elastic growth (and shrink) to your network blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Only Two Types of Webmasters 1. Understand that search is a critical part of their site’s user experience 2. Don’t understand that search is a critical part of their site’s user experience Search is a critical part of your site’s user experience blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Wordpress Search Options • Out-of-box Wordpress Search • Lijit – Uses MySQL Full-text – Barely Functional – not – Full-text + implemented or de- emphasized in most themes Web 2.0 Features • Search Everything Plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ search-everything/ • Solr – MySQL Full-text + Comments, Pages, etc – Full-text + Web 2.0 + • Sphinx – Good Full-text Features Guided Nav + Content Analysis + + + blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Solr Not Adopted by WP Community • Why Solr? – Feature-complete, mature, robust search system – Largest community of users and extensions – Production tested: CNET, Netflix, YP.com, Digg, AOL, Disney, NASA… • Why NOT Solr? – Platform mismatch: Java-based – Different skillset required • Can the Cloud Help? blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Solr for Wordpress • Solr for Wordpress Plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/solr-for-wordpress/ – created by Matt Weber – Index Pages, Posts, Comments – Full Solr 1.4 Integration • PowCloud – Hosted Solr http://powcloud.com/ – Currently in Private Beta – Twitter.com/powcloud blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: S4WP Features • Full-text search w/ stemming, boolean searches, advanced queries • Guided Search, Facetted Navigation blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: S4WP Features • AJAX-Autocomplete • ‘Did-you-mean’ spell checking • Improved Results Layout (highlighting, paging, so rt) blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: S4WP Similar Content Widget • Links up to 5 of the most related posts • Benefits: – Decrease bounce rate – Increase PV/visit blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Future • Re: Beau Lebens @ Automattic – More searchable content coming up: • BuddyPress – Social content, friends, updates • bbPress – Forums • Real-time Search – ‘Next Big Thing’ • Search is the command line of web blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Search: Summary • Search is a critical part of your site’s user experience – Increase pageviews – Decrease bounce rate – Help users find what they are looking for • Solr is most feature complete search platform • Solr4WP Plugin + PowCloud = Plug and Play Solr Now: In Beta blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

User Experience: Blogs as Conversations • Commenting is the lifeblood of the best blogs • More complex than ever: – SPAM – User management – Authentication – Moderation – Threading – Ratings – Social media integration – Syndication • Complexity + Social Media Integration + Syndication = Perfect Candidate for Cloud blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

User Experience: Cloud-based Commenting Providers for WP • IntenseDebate • Disqus • Echo • Vendors Battling for Marketshare – Price is right – Feature competition good for you – All strong contenders blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

3 Ways to Cloud Power Your WordPress What’s Next? 1. Find a Reverse-Proxy Capable CDN http://silvermako.com/cdn-quote 2. Signup for PowCloud Beta http://powcloud.com 3. Choose a Cloud- Comment Provider blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

Fini • Darren Rush – DLRUSH@gmail.com – Twitter.com/darrenrush – darrenrush.com blog: darrenrush.com twitter: @darrenrush

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Cloud Powered Wordpress: Improving Performance, Search and User Experience for Wordpress

by Darren Rush

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