The Biggest Ukrainian Independent Media Website

Dedicated team behind the project

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The client

Hromadske.UA is the first in Ukraine media platform, created and controlled by journalists. It’s independent of any kind of authority, politicians or oligarchs, and orientated on unbiased news.

The Hromadske team was interested in the load and performance improvement to the flawless performance of the high-load system. Enhancing security was also an important issue for the team since they wanted to protect the system from potential DDoS attacks.

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The challenge

The platform already had more than 2,5 million visitors every month. This number was projected to grow steadily, so the challenge was to ensure auto-scaling without any disruption to the work.

Also, the team required custom software for redactors and content creators who were managing the content flow of the website.

The great part of the project was dedicated to DevOps challenges, security, and scalability improvement: hosting costs optimization, services for mitigating DDoS attacks integration, performance optimization.

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Approach / what was done

We created a new high-load platform for a wide audience of all ages. As the current audience didn’t stay for a long time on the resource, our tasks were to attract new readers and to hold the current audience longer on the platform. We had to offer a more personalized interface and implement unique features to bring the brand closer to a consumer.

Implemented features

feature:/ 01
Convenient admin panel for journalists

We developed a сustom CMS for redactors that make the process of news posting fast and easy.

Features:

  • Ability to add video and pictures;
  • Ability to customize the blocks and structure of the publications;
  • Ability to plan and postpone publications.

feature:/ 02
Clear navigation for both visitors and search engines

We improved the site's navigation and content organization.

Features:

  • Instant search of publications;
  • Custom sorting of publications by data and relevance;
  • Automatic translation of the publications.

feature:/ 03
AutoScaling and DevOps Automation

We developed a responsive and fast high-load system using Auto Scaling on AWS to ensure the scalability and security of the solution and its flawless performance.

Additional features

  1. Integrations with social networks We simplified the website’s content promotion for journalists.
  2. Live TV Stream: a custom video service was developed that is distributed via Youtube, Smart TV, IPTV Player, and the primary Ukrainian streaming services.
Hromadske-Approach-1
Hromadske Approach 2
Hromadske Approach 3
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Results

By 70%

decreased the time editors spend managing the website

By 50%

boosted website key performance metrics

Decreased

server costs for AWS infrastructure and improved platform scalability and security

Delivered

a modern and fast loading media website

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