MemberClicks provides all-in-one management software that helps small-staff associations make the most of technology. Serving more than 1,400 organizations across the United States and Europe, the company offers online membership management systems, association applications, membership renewal dues, event registration, and payment services, all within one cohesive solution. MemberClicks software can stand-alone as a membership website and social community for associations, or it can integrate seamlessly into existing websites acting as the membership database to power membership functionality for an existing site. The company also provides custom website design and content management services. Additionally, MemberClicks hosts small-staff associations’ transaction processes, forum sign-ups, social community features, and more.
MemberClicks has used a variety of cloud hosting tools and methods since their founding in 1998, starting with an array of dedicated servers that they managed themselves, and eventually moving entirely to the cloud. MemberClicks turned to INetU because they needed to be able to focus on serving their customers and their marketplace rather than spending valuable time and internal resources on managing their IT infrastructure. They also required a cloud hosting provider that could adapt and pivot with them quickly as the business continued to grow and evolve. The INetU Hybrid Cloud, which combines the strengths of dedicated servers, private clouds, and public clouds, provided this agility at minimal cost and at minimal headache for both parties, as any necessary hardware remained continually available and live with INetU.
“The health of our infrastructure is core to our business, yet from a product standpoint, maintaining and monitoring our infrastructure activity can be a distraction,” said Richie Ward, vice president of technology at MemberClicks. “We needed a cloud hosting provider that could support our infrastructure needs so that we could focus on doing what we do best—servicing the technology needs of small staff associations.”
In addition to infrastructure support and flexibility, MemberClicks also sought a provider that could offer a highly personalized experience, proactive support, and continual communication. Ward explains, “We didn’t want to be just another number in a giant datacenter. The INetU service model really impressed us, along with their hands-on
approach. It made us feel comfortable partnering with a team outside of our organization to help manage our IT infrastructure.”
Since signing on with INetU more than three years ago, MemberClicks has also gained invaluable guidance in security and support. This past July, MemberClicks experienced a series of DDoS attacks (DDoS, or a distributed denial-of-service attack, is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users). The attacks were a sophisticated security breach that threatened to affect a variety of their customers due to the shared infrastructure environment in which MemberClicks hosts its small-staff association customers.
As soon as the attack was detected, MemberClicks spoke with its personal INetU Chief Hosting Officer, who serves as a constant, personal guide for MemberClicks to ensure that their cloud solution continues to meet their hanging business needs. The Chief Hosting Officer helped identify and explain the attack, and also shared how the INetU support team was already handling the security breach. INetU also immediately referred MemberClicks to their partner, cloud-based and fully managed DDoS protection service, DOSarrest. Within just a couple of minutes, DOSarrest was able to set up MemberClicks with their DDoS traffic scrubbing service, mitigate the attack, and get their business running as usual.
“I’m still blown away by how quickly INetU and DOSarrest were able to react to that DDoS attack,” said Ward. “We’ve since added DOSarrest to our infrastructure permanently, and have actually mitigated additional attacks since July with zero impact to our business, thanks to this support. We’re continually impressed by the responsiveness of both INetU and DOSarrest and their ability to respond not just with generic communication, but with technical solutions in just 2-3 minutes, day or night.”
Additionally, MemberClicks has found success with INetU due to the agile nature of the INetU Hybrid Cloud. MemberClicks frequently experiences periods of high traffic due to end-of-the-year membership renewal dues and various customer publicity campaigns. These activities required a partner that could anticipate and accommodate these changing infrastructure and resource demands in real time. The INetU Hybrid Cloud allowed for fine-grained control and instant adaptability, enabling MemberClicks to spin up additional servers or remove them depending on their changing infrastructure, hardware, and performance requirements.
“Being a multi-tenant environment, it’s crucial for us to have a cloud infrastructure that can quickly pivot, change configurations, and spin up servers quickly, as none of our customers should have to suffer performance issues or downtime due to another customer’s increased or decreased traffic demands,” said Ward.
The INetU Hybrid Cloud has also enabled MemberClicks to more complex small-staff associations with changing requirements swiftly and securely serve by continually supporting any additional or unique infrastructure needs.
Ward explains, “INetU has provided us with flexibility, and has allowed us to grow our business as fast as we can. If we want to expand our market base or add a slew of additional small-staff associations to our infrastructure, INetU has our back.”
