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Cogeco Media, a subsidiary of Cogeco Inc., is one of the largest radio networks in the Province of Quebec.
The company owns and operates 13 radio stations across the province delivering varied and complementary programming to a wide range of audiences, including The Beat 92.5, Montréal’s #1 radio station.
As leaders in their respective markets, Cogeco Media’s radio stations reach more than five million listeners each week. Cogeco also operates Cogeco News, the largest independent radio news service in Quebec, and Cogeco Force Radio which offers access to a powerful network of radio stations that are among the best, the most complementary and the most diversified in the province.
Like most media companies, Cogeco Media now operates in a mixed media environment. It must provide content to its listeners in real time through a variety of listening devices, from traditional on-air radio channels to apps, to the web.
Listeners also expect an always on, always available experience from the company’s 13 broadcasting stations, who are on the air continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year. For the web, this high level of availability necessitates a rock-solid technology infrastructure.
In the past, Cogeco Media’s website was an on-premise solution. However, it was difficult to manage and maintain and it did not offer 24-hour monitoring. With the number of stations in the company’s portfolio growing and the online listening experience becoming more popular, Perreault and his team decided to modernize their solution with a move to the cloud.
To expedite its cloud migration, Cogeco Media’s digital team engaged Aptum to provide the necessary technology infrastructure and day-to-day cloud management expertise. The final solution allowed Cogeco Media to not only recreate its website in the cloud, but also vastly improve its reliability, security and usability.
As a prominent media company, Cogeco Media is at risk of denial of service (DDoS) threats. While they had security measures in place, they didn't have anyone on their team with the cyber security expertise to ensure their continued protection. With Aptum onboard, they were able to put the appropriate DDoS protection layers in place and be confident that their site was secure, backed by Aptums 24/7 support.
While performance of the site is key for the company’s millions of listeners, it also impacts the company’s non-technical content providers, who interact with the website’s back end, uploading audio files daily.
The strong relationship with Aptum also means Cogeco Media’s infrastructure issues – if they do arise – can be quickly resolved. Perreault and his team can also rest easy in the knowledge that the technology running their website is state-of-the-art and always current.
“Since we’ve been up and running we are almost never down achieving 99.99 percent reliability… In fact, in the last eight to nine months we’ve had no downtime at all.”
Since the new Cogeco Media website was launched in September 2017 Cogeco Media’s experience with its infrastructure and its support team has been very smooth – virtually flawless.
“If we do experience any problems, they are fixed very rapidly. In fact, the Aptum team is so proactive, they call me to inform me of issues, versus the other way around. Aptum has been a great partner for us. I would for sure turn to them again for my next IT project.”
