How UCAS made its website a high achiever

The UCAS (University and Colleges Applications Service) website has developed considerably in recent years and is now the main resource for prospective university students and higher education institutions in the UK.

Students research and apply for courses via the website while universities are able to monitor applications and communicate with students regarding course entry.

During the 2006/07 application process, 99.8 per cent of university applicants applied for a course through UCAS.com - a total of 410,000 students. Three years ago, this figure was just 21 per cent.

Due to the huge increase in demand UCAS has had to test and monitor the website in order to serve the changing needs of its users.

UCAS enlisted the help of Scientific Computers Limited (SCL) around six years ago - when the website was still in its infancy - and the continuing relationship has helped develop the site.

SCL works as a consultant for UCAS and recommended two applications from Empirix for load testing and live website monitoring.

The e-Load system allowed UCAS to simulate up to 60 site logins per second. As the maximum rate of actual logins has never exceeded 47 per second, UCAS has always been confident the site can cope.

Speaking to silicon.com, Steve Harrop, strategy and planning manager for digital services at UCAS, said: "We've certainly learned to understand what [the] infrastructure can deliver through load testing."

The OneSight monitoring system has been used for around four years and as Harrop put it: "It allows us to diagnose problems."

OneSight operates an on-screen traffic-light system to show the status of each potential bottleneck on the site. A point will move from green to yellow once 6,000 concurrent users are active on the site, moving up to red for 6,500.

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Although the site can cope with up to 7,000 concurrent users and 2,000 staff users, OneSight allows UCAS to monitor the website's key performance indicators of health and availability.

Regarding the development of the website, Harrop said: "We've learned lots of lessons on the way.

"We now have resilience at all levels."

As a result of the work, users of the site can now enjoy reliable 24-hour access and a speedier more efficient service.

The two systems will continue to be valuable as UCAS adds a post-graduate application service and a content management system in the coming months - both of which will need similar testing and monitoring.