The City of Ottawa is looking at upgrading its server capacity on days when recreational services are launched.
People looking to sign themselves or their children up for classes frequently encounter website crashes and delays when services first open up. Monday night was no exception.
“Almost two hours before I got them registered,” said Alastair Holmes, who logged on Monday to sign his kids up for swimming lessons.
“Kicked off once, then I had to get back on, and then registering is a bit of a hassle because the website is kind of finicky,” he says.
Coun. Theresa Kavanagh, who is vice-chair of the city's IT subcommittee, says the system is dated and staff are looking at ways of improving it.
“The system capacity just hit the max,” said Kavanagh. “This happens, all at once, a couple of times a year, maybe three or four times a year. What I understand is we are looking at, for a lack of a better word, farming it out to a server that can handle it.”
In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, the city's general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services, Dan Chenier, said a new system is coming.
“We recognize that the delays residents experienced can be frustrating," he said. "The City is in the process of replacing its current registration tool with a modern alternative that will have greater capacity to serve high volumes of concurrent users. The new system is expected to be launched late this year. We would like to thank residents for their patience.”
Holmes, whose kids are seven and 10, is no stranger to the system.
“It’s been like this since the beginning and I would say it’s getting worse. Usually, I could get in with maybe half an hour,” he said.
Kavanagh said the extra capacity would not be necessary all the time.
“We just need it for these specific days where they open up the flood gates and let people register,” she said.
Kavanagh added that 7,258 of 11,000 spots were quickly booked.
