CAP enhances Software as a Service – Content Modification

This white paper is one of a series, outlining how CAP is being used to enhance a Software as a Service application.

Keywords:

Cloud, SaaS, Content, CDN, Fix

The context:

A large retailer is outsourcing their e-commerce application to a third-party provider. This relationship has existed for a long time, however the retailer grew increasingly frustrated with the cost and time involved in enacting any changes to the user experience and the lack of certain features. Adding to the sense of frustration was the fact that any requests were completely at the mercy of the third-party provider.

The solution:

CAP was installed in the Amazon cloud between the end users and the third-party provider to help overcome some of these problems. By taking advantage CAP Agent’s built in adaptive, static content caching and ability to act inline in real time with minimum performance impact, the retailer resumed control of their brand and reputation.

Deployment diagram:

Why CAP:

No other product on the market offers a CDN-like capability that also involves enhancing and enriching content on the fly on a massive scale as well as addressing urgent security shortcomings. The retailer needs this capability to have some measure of control over third party software they are otherwise unable to change.

The story:

The retailer changed one of their suppliers and wished to remove the old supplier’s logo from their website. A request was made to the vendor responsible for maintaining the website. The response was high in value, in terms of both money and time to complete, but with seemingly no alternative the retailer had to agree to the terms.

Using CAP, a plan was quickly hatched to resolve the issue:

Within minutes, a simple yet powerful solution was implemented. The solution replaced the code in any page referencing the supplier’s logo and website link with empty quotes, effectively removing the logo and link from the users view.

Example modification:

The limitations:

The logo and link, whilst removed from view were still in the underlying code. A long-term solution was to remove from the code by the supplier. CAP providing a temporary fix in the meantime.

Business benefits:

The retailer benefited from instant content changes whilst waiting for the actual code changes from the supplier.

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