Surfline.com Standardizes on Webmetrics Monitoring Services to Validate Performance and Delivery of LOLA Forecasting Service
Webmetrics, a provider of website testing, monitoring and analytics services, today announced that the Company is delivering web performance monitoring services to Surfline.com, the premier online destination for surfers. Surfline has standardized on Webmetrics' SiteMonitor services to validate uptime, performance and content delivery for a variety of customer-facing web services, including LOLA, Surfline's proprietary wave forecasting system.
More than 28,000 paid customers rely on Surfline.com to deliver real-time swell forecasts and streaming video feeds from more than from 100 coastal points around the world. While many Surfline subscribers are surfers seeking current or advanced forecasting on regional wave conditions, the website is also used by boating and fishing enthusiasts to predict how weather events will effect near shore conditions. In addition, the LOLA forecasting system is one of many data points used by local and government agencies, such as the Navy, Coast Guard and Lifeguards, to help identify and prepare for weather-related public safety concerns. Surfline.com is visited by more than one million users monthly.
Most Surfline services, including forecast models, data and streaming downloads, are exposed through an http interface to provide the Company's IT team with an ongoing status of each web service. Surfline utilizes Webmetrics to continually test the http service developed for each, be it LOLA, forums or camera feeds, checking the page for expected content and providing uptime verification and performance measurement for the back-end web services. This validation is particularly critical during extreme weather events or surf tournaments, during which Surfline.com experiences a significantly measurable spike in website traffic.
Surfline.com is powered by a fully redundant, disparate network comprised of web, application and database servers, multiple third-party data sources and 100+ streaming video feeds. Surfline has protected its service delivery investment by leveraging external web monitoring services by Webmetrics, ensuring that the Surfline.com website is continually up and performing for end-users.Â
"The problems with a 100 percent redundant system is what happens if everything fails," says Tim Chandler, Technical Service Manager for Surfline.com. "Continually testing web service availability from outside our firewall, Webmetrics alerted us of a potential performance issue, which was traced to a load balancing outage that could not be detected from within our data center. With the ability to execute traceroutes and insta-checks from multiple points of presence, our NOC was able to pinpoint the load balance issue that was previously transparent and rectify the problem before end-user performance was effected. Bottom line, if Webmetrics' SiteMonitor is not happy with our site, we do not leave the data center."
Performance Monitoring Services Webmetrics offers a variety of web performance services to help the performance and profitability of websites. SiteMonitor is a hosted service that provides up to the minute monitoring to ensure website availability, measure page load times and verify proper content delivery. SiteMonitor tests websites from up to 25 global monitoring agents and generates real-time alerts (email, voice and SMS) if errors are experienced or defined performance thresholds are exceeded. Webmetrics' AppMonitor service is used to monitor web applications, such as shopping cart check-out, new user registrations and live software updates, executing scripts that simulate defined user behaviors. Both services include ad hoc and email-delivered performance reporting. For more information about Webmetrics monitoring service, please visit http://www.webmetrics.com/websitemonitoring.html or http://www.webmetrics.com/applicationmonitoring.html.
About Surfline
Surfline is the leading provider of surf report and forecast information to consumers, businesses and government agencies worldwide. Headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, Surfline delivers timely, accurate and comprehensive data on a daily basis via phone, fax, wireless web and the Internet. The company's world-renowned website, Surfline.com, is visited by the largest and most loyal audience of surf and beach enthusiasts in the world. Since 1985, Surfline has merged premier surf report and forecast talent with industry-leading technology to produce "must-have" content of unparalleled quality aimed at active participants in the sports of surfing, windsurfing, bodysurfing and bodyboarding.
About Webmetrics
Webmetrics is a leading provider of website testing, monitoring and analytics services for companies that want to ensure online performance, competitive advantage and a positive end-user experience. Using Webmetrics' services, SMBs, enterprise customers and partner providers can test, monitor and measure the performance of web sites, transactions and supporting systems to ensure 24/7 uptime and performance integrity. Webmetrics' GlobalWatch network spans 25 cities worldwide. The Company's customers include America West Airlines, Bluefly.com, DHL, GMAC, Homestore.com, Symantec, the Knot and Virgin.
Founded in 1999, Webmetrics is a privately held company headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, call 877-524-8299 or visit us at www.webmetrics.com.