No Time for Downtime: How We Prevented a Bank Holiday eCommerce Nightmare

Picture this: It’s Friday afternoon, just minutes away from the start of a bank holiday weekend. Everyone’s eager to wind down and enjoy a well-deserved break. But for eCommerce stores, weekends and holiday breaks are often the busiest days, and every minute of downtime can mean lost revenue. Here’s how we saved our client Commercial Washrooms Ltd. from a disastrous bank holiday weekend of downtime.

The Situation:

At 4:41pm, our server monitoring tools sprang into action, notifying us that commercialwashroomsltd.co.uk was experiencing downtime. Without skipping a beat, our team launched an investigation even before the client reached out to us. We knew we had to act fast to prevent the store from going offline for the holiday weekend.

The Problem:

The root cause of the site’s downtime was a swarm of aggressive bots originating from specific IP addresses. These bots were crawling thousands of pages per minute, consuming all available server power and bringing the site to a standstill. Allocating more power to the server would’ve been a band-aid solution, but it wouldn’t have addressed the root cause of the problem.

The Solution:

We cross-referenced the suspicious IP addresses with an abuse list and confirmed their malicious intent. Wasting no time, we blocked the IP addresses using a firewall, effectively stopping the bots in their tracks and restoring the site to its fully operational state.

The Outcome:

Within a mere 10 minutes, at 4:49pm, the entire process was resolved. Commercial Washrooms Ltd. was back online and ready to serve their customers. At 5:30pm, we spoke to the owner to ensure everything was working properly, and he thanked us for the swift action. Our timely response not only saved the day for our client but also showcased our dedication to identifying site issues proactively and addressing them with urgency and expertise!

Are you one of those eCommerce businesses fearing downtime on a Friday afternoon? Get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to demonstrate our commitment to exceptional client service and provide you with proactive support to ensure your online store remains operational, even during the busiest times!