Key Impacts
- Enables Redcats USA to capture more online sales
- Supports marketing campaigns, peak traffic, and traffic growth without operational costs
- Allows Redcats USA to provide a superior online experience
- Reduces Web infrastructure costs and simplifies management
- Enables fast time to market for new brands
- Upholds brand image
Redcats® USA (formerly Brylane) is America's Specialty Catalog and E-Commerce Leader™, with 10 catalogs and 12 e-commerce sites representing well-known brand names such as Chadwick’s of Boston, Lerner Catalog, Jessica London, and Lane Bryant Catalog. In 2003, Redcats USA was experiencing exponential growth across its family of Web sites, putting a strain on its infrastructure and creating a tremendous workload for the IT staff. As traffic surged with each new catalog released and high-resolution images taxed their existing infrastructure, Redcats USA needed a solution that guaranteed a quality online experience for their customers without breaking the bank. After considering deploying a dedicated group of image servers to solve that part of the challenge, Redcats USA approached Akamai for a more holistic solution.
Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator fit the bill perfectly. Because capacity was no longer an issue, seasonal traffic spikes and promotional periods ceased to threaten the speed or availability of the various Redcats USA sites. The company was able to reduce its bandwidth consumption with existing telecom providers by 90%, while virtually eliminating the need to expand its server farm. Because there was no significant, one-time investment in infrastructure, profit margins were maintained. The company now serves more than 200 million page views each month—quickly and reliably—thanks to Akamai.
"Any serious business with an online strategy needs to consider the benefits of using Akamai’s solutions and services. I don’t know how we could accomplish what we do today without using Akamai. It’s the equivalent of a company not using a phone system. You simply need it to run your business."
.” —Alex Betancur, Vice President of Online Technology, Redcats USA
