Ensuring Seamless Fundraising for Comic Relief During Peak Campaigns

Client: Comic Relief

Industry: Charity & Non-profit

Project Duration: October 2014 – October 2015 (Individual Contribution)

Hilights: High-Traffic Web Application Maintenance & Development, Infrastructure Migration to AWS, Technology Stack Modernization, Performance Optimization, DevOps Practices.

About Comic Relief:

Comic Relief is a leading UK charity with a powerful vision: a just world, free from poverty. Since 1985, through iconic campaigns like Red Nose Day and Sport Relief, Comic Relief has mobilized the generosity of the public, raising over £1 billion to make a tangible difference in the lives of vulnerable people both in the UK and internationally. Their large-scale fundraising events rely heavily on robust and scalable digital infrastructure to facilitate donations and event registrations from hundreds of thousands of users.

The Challenge:

Comic Relief’s critical event registration and fundraising platform, which experiences massive traffic spikes during their Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns, was facing several challenges:

• Legacy Infrastructure: The application was hosted with a third-party provider, presenting limitations in terms of scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
• Outdated Technology Stack: Key components of the LAMP stack were running on older versions (PHP 5.2, MySQL 5.2, Apache 2.2, Varnish 2.8, Solr 3.5), leading to potential security vulnerabilities, performance bottlenecks, and increased maintenance overhead.
• Version Control Inefficiencies: The use of SVN for repository management hindered collaboration and streamlined development workflows.
• Scalability Concerns: The existing infrastructure needed significant upgrades to reliably handle the immense user load during peak fundraising periods, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted donation experience.

The Solution (Individual Contribution as Senior/Lead PHP Developer):

As a Senior/Lead PHP Developer embedded within the Comic Relief team, a key focus of my responsibilities was to architect and execute a comprehensive migration and modernization strategy for their mission-critical event registration and fundraising platform. This involved a collaborative effort with the WebOps team and encompassed the following key actions:

• Infrastructure Migration to AWS: Contributed to the planning and execution of a complete migration of the application infrastructure from the third-party hosting provider to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This involved leveraging various AWS services to enhance scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency.
• Version Control Migration to Git: Successfully migrated all application code repositories from SVN to Git, establishing a more efficient and collaborative version control system for the development team.
• Technology Stack Upgrades: Led the critical upgrades of core technology components:
  • PHP: Upgraded from version 5.2 to 5.5, unlocking performance improvements and enhanced security features.
  • MySQL: Migrated to a more robust and scalable MySQL 5.2 instance on AWS RDS (Relational Database Service).
  • Apache: Upgraded from version 2.2 to 2.4, incorporating performance enhancements and new functionalities.
  • Varnish: Upgraded from version 2.8 to 4, significantly improving caching capabilities and reducing server load during high-traffic events.
  • Solr: Upgraded from version 3.5 to 5.2, enhancing search functionality, performance, and stability for the platform’s search features.
• Application Architecture: The application, built on a LAMP stack with PHP5 and the Zend Framework 1 (ZF1), utilized Doctrine 2.3 for data abstraction, ensuring efficient interaction with the MySQL database. Solr was integrated to power the platform’s search capabilities, providing users with quick and relevant results.
• Asynchronous Task Management: Leveraged Gearman to manage long-running and asynchronous tasks, such as creating and updating Solr cores and sending crucial email communications, ensuring a responsive user experience.
• Deployment Automation: Build a CI/CD pipeline on jenkins using deployment tools like Capistrano and cloud formation to streamline and automate the deployment process across the upgraded infrastructure.
• Collaboration with WebOps: Worked closely with the WebOps team to ensure a smooth and coordinated migration and upgrade process, addressing infrastructure dependencies and ensuring application compatibility.

Technologies Utilized:

• PHP 5.5 (Initially 5.2)
• Zend Framework 1 (ZF1)
• Doctrine 2.3
• MySQL 5.2 (RDS) (Initially 5.2)
• Varnish 4 (Initially 2.8)
• Memcache
• Apache 2.4 (Initially 2.2)
• Solr 5.2 (Initially 3.5)
• RabbitMQ
• Gearman
• Git (Initially SVN)
• Capistrano

The Outcome & Impact:

The successful migration and modernization of Comic Relief’s event registration and fundraising platform resulted in significant benefits:

• Enhanced Scalability and Reliability: The move to AWS provided a highly scalable and reliable infrastructure capable of handling the massive traffic surges during Red Nose Day and Sport Relief campaigns, ensuring platform stability and preventing downtime.
• Improved Performance: Upgrading key technology components like PHP, MySQL, Apache, Varnish, and Solr led to significant performance improvements, resulting in faster page load times and a smoother user experience for hundreds of thousands of donors and event participants.
• Increased Security: Upgrading to newer versions of software addressed known security vulnerabilities, bolstering the platform’s overall security posture and protecting sensitive user data.
• Streamlined Development Workflow: The migration to Git enabled more efficient collaboration, version control, and code management for the development team.
• Reduced Maintenance Overhead: Modernizing the technology stack reduced the complexity and cost associated with maintaining outdated software versions.
• Future-Proofing the Platform: The upgrades laid a solid foundation for future development and innovation on the Comic Relief platform.

Conclusion:

By addressing the challenges of legacy infrastructure and outdated technologies, the project ensured a robust, scalable, and secure platform capable of supporting Comic Relief’s vital fundraising efforts and ultimately contributing to their mission of creating a just world free from poverty.

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