How we helped the magazine Dotekománie.cz reduce web server load by 41% and achieve 6× faster website loading.
A Czech online magazine focused on news and updates from the world of technology, as well as reviews of mobile phones, tablets, computers, and other smart electronics. It also produces various types of content such as newsletters, tutorials, videos, and podcasts.
Dotekománie is one of the most visited technology websites in the Czech Republic. In 2023, it reached around one million visitors per month. The owner, editor-in-chief, and lead developer is Přemysl Vaculík.
Problems with attacks and a solution provided by the American cybersecurity company Cloudflare.
With a steadily growing audience and increasing traffic, Dotekománie needed a solution that would permanently resolve ongoing cybersecurity issues causing slowdowns, outages, and periods of unavailability for the popular magazine.
Before ultimately deciding to switch to WEDOS, the site had long relied on the world’s largest cybersecurity provider, Cloudflare. While Cloudflare was able to stop massive DDoS attacks, it often let smaller ones through to the origin server. As a result, parts of the website frequently became non-functional.
We primarily chose the Global Protection service from WEDOS due to the worsening situation with our previous provider of similar technology—specifically, Cloudflare. While this service is great for massive protection against large-scale attacks, it doesn’t catch everything, especially the smaller ones.
Given the sheer size of the company, they unfortunately aren’t able to address smaller issues individually. That’s why we decided to try switching to WEDOS Protection. Website performance has improved, and attacks no longer cause us as many problems—or rather, individual parts of the site are no longer becoming unavailable.
Přemysl Vaculík
Founder, editor-in-chief, and developer
Negative Impacts of Digital Media Downtime
41% reduction in web server load and ensuring continuous website availability without outages
At first, Dotekománie considered resolving the situation by switching to a more robust and significantly more expensive solution than traditional web hosting—one that could better handle the increasing number of requests to the web server. Options included a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or even a dedicated physical server. However, this would have also required hiring an IT specialist, leading to additional costs.
In the end, the magazine’s owner decided to try the WEDOS Protection service, which resulted in a 41% reduction in the number of requests reaching the target server! This was achieved through:
- BGP Anycast technology and reverse proxy, which allow the distribution of identical IP addresses across multiple servers. This enables traffic to be spread and balanced among several points of presence within the WEDOS Global network. Additionally, IP blocking and rate limiting features can repel suspicious traffic (such as hacker attacks) before it even reaches the destination server.
- Web CDN Cache, which continuously creates cached versions of the website. This significantly reduces the amount of data that needs to be loaded with each user request.
After implementing WP, the number of requests to the target server dropped from 27,795,270 to 16,325,288 in just one month – resulting in a 41% reduction in web server load!
By blocking suspicious traffic and reducing the load, continuous website availability was achieved without slowdowns or outages.
After deploying WP, we’ve seen faster response times, shorter loading durations, and overall lower server load. This naturally has a financial impact as well, since we no longer need to invest in more robust hosting solutions from our service provider.
Přemysl Vaculík
CEO, editor-in-chief, and developer
Metrics also show a massive improvement in performance – a 6× faster website loading time.
Thanks to WP, Dotekománie can cache a large portion of its website content (storing data from the database in memory) and, if necessary, distribute it across various Points of Presence (PoPs) within the WEDOS Global server infrastructure. This optimizes the performance and speed of the website for all readers, regardless of their location around the world.
After conducting response time tests on production servers, it was found that WEDOS Protection reduced website loading time by 82%!
The average website response time dropped from 752 ms to 135 ms after implementing WP—resulting in an 82% improvement in loading speed!
The importance of fast website loading and quality user experience (UX) for digital media
Among the most frequent readers of Dotekománie are modern technology enthusiasts who expect speed and ease of use – not only from their mobile phones or smartwatches, but also when interacting with websites. They demand instant access to information and smooth navigation without unnecessary complications. Fast website response and user-friendliness are therefore key criteria for their satisfaction.
Website loading speed and user experience are also important from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, and are among Google’s primary ranking factors. For Dotekománie – just like for any online magazine – ranking high in the SERP is crucial for increasing organic traffic and gaining more regular subscribers to news and reviews.
Personalized customer support approach
Přemysl Vaculík, the owner of Dotekománie magazine, appreciates the fact that he can contact WEDOS customer support and receive feedback or necessary information very quickly. He also sees the ability to communicate in Czech as a major advantage – something that was not possible with the American provider Cloudflare.
As a global cybersecurity giant primarily focused on large-scale enterprises and B2B clients, Cloudflare did not offer effective communication or responsive problem-solving. In critical situations, Dotekománie often had to rely solely on customer forums or community support, which is far from ideal at such moments. According to the owner, WEDOS holds a significant advantage over foreign competitors in this respect.
I would definitely recommend this service from WEDOS, as it offers a wide range of benefits—not only in terms of loading speed or cybersecurity. It can also help reduce hosting costs, especially for those already using maximum-tier solutions and looking to avoid switching to a VPS or dedicated physical server, which would require hiring a specialist in this area.
Přemysl Vaculík
CEO, editor-in-chief, and developer