Every year, China’s Singles Day -- the world’s biggest online shopping event -- manages to top its scale and performance from the previous year. Despite the ravages of coronavirus -- or possibly because of them -- Singles Day 2020 promises to double up on its singular focus by expanding the scope of Singles Day itself. In fact it’s already begun. 

In organizations all over the world, sustainability has become a watchword. This may be especially true in the public sector, as governmental and civil sector agencies are often tasked with the responsibility for implementing, overseeing and policing society’s sustainability initiatives. For as much political talk as exists around “government waste”, public sector entities have led the way in introducing sustainable policies, actively seeking ways to be better “green citizens”. Having a duty of care as a steward of the public good, and a responsibility to meet sustainability objectives, public sector agencies, big and small, have made strides in reducing energy consumption, introducing recycling initiatives, implementing green procurement programs and requirements, and so forth.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, a smaller-scale crisis has emerged. Government and public sector websites tasked with some of the most important tasks in society, such as administering unemployment insurance claims and other benefits and providing access to crucial services, including applications for Covid-19-related financial aid, have buckled under the sheer weight of demand. Downtime has crushed essential sites globally, which have been overwhelmed by unheard-of levels of traffic. 

In a recent webinar, we shared some of the big dos and don’ts of Varnish use. After outlining the don’ts in an earlier blog post, we promised to follow up with a rundown of the five Varnish dos as presented in the webinar. Obviously, you should watch the webinar to get the full story on why and how you should take these actions in Varnish, but here’s a quick taster to give you a preview of what you’ll learn.