The Challenge
For years Phantasialand has served millions of families, businesses and devoted fans with its online presence, but behind the scenes it was operating multiple websites that had evolved over time. It had different sites for the park, the hotels, the dinner theatre, and others. They used different systems as well as different processes for content management, and each part of online activity took place on a different server. Worse still, the online shop was separate from the other sites. The result was fragmented, inflexible, and expensive to maintain.
The Solution
A website with highly emotional content was set up using eZ Publish and eZ Flow. The site is easy to modify and maintain, even with dynamic content. Because of the large amount of rich media content that was planned for the site and mil- lions of expected visitors, e-mediad implemented a server clustering solution - a solution supported by eZ Publish. This solution was implemented to be highly scalable for growth, both for number of visits as well as next-generation investments. A reverse proxy set up in front of the web servers minimizes the load. This way the site is available and loads quickly even when there is a drastic increase in visitors. e-mediad found a way for the site to deliver content that was search engine optimized, so despite the use of many Flash and AJAX components, all content is easily found by search engines.
Why eZ Publish?
e-mediad recommended eZ Publish since it makes it easy to modify and maintain sites. eZ Publish not only offers great flexibility in terms of programming but also a simple way to introduce changes. Additionally, the eZ Flow extension is used for the website, which allows for working with dynamic content layouts. Since eZ Publish and its extensions are available as open source software, Phantasialand can be confident its investment is for the long term. This security is reinforced by eZ Systems, which takes on product responsibility with its “eZ Publish Premium" program.
The Result
Phantasialand targeted a launch date for the site to coincide with the park’s season opening in early April. This is one of the busiest times of the year for the park, and millions visit the website to find out what’s new. The project was designed, implemented and launched in five months, and the switch to the new sever infrastructure successfully coincided with the park opening exactly as planned. Not only did the site play an important role in the onset of the new season, the rich media experience and high performance levels maximized word-of-mouth.