SaaS Sizing and Scale Best Practices




 
SaaS Sizing and Scale Best Practices

Date Published: Jul 27,2024 Category: Product:Blackboard_Learn_SaaS; Version:SaaS   Article No.: 000077687

Product: Learn SaaS

Document Type: Administrator Documentation

Document Summary: SaaS environments are sized based on their contracted FTE number and their historical levels of utilization. However, when an extra load is expected (such as an exam period) or a return to normal load after a period of low utilization (such as the back-to-school period), clients should inform Anthology in advance so the servers can be adequately prepared.
Information: SaaS environments are adequately sized for each client based on their contracted FTE number and their historical levels of utilization. Besides that, they also leverage best-in-class autoscaling and load-balancing technology to guarantee availability.

However, when an extra load is expected (such as an exam period) or a return to normal load after a period of low utilization (such as the back-to-school period), the environment may not scale as fast as expected; generating glitches, slowness, or even outages.

To avoid this situation, it is recommended that clients inform Anthology in advance of such periods of extra load, following these guidelines:
  1. This should be done at least 2 weeks in advance of the start of the exams period or back-to-school period
  2. The Learn administrator should open a Support ticket detailing as much as possible the schedule and the expected load (how many students will be using the system at the same time, at what dates and times).
This will allow Anthology to review the current system sizing and performance and determine whether any action is needed to ensure system stability during the period of increased usage.