Enhancing Digital Infrastructure for Advanced Radar Solutions

The Challenge

Echodyne’s website was operating on an outdated version of Umbraco (v9) that had reached end of life, and consequently was no longer receiving security updates or technical support from Umbraco. A technical upgrade was essential to mitigate potential security risks and ensure the site’s maintainability.

As an initial step, Cantarus conducted a thorough review of Echodyne’s existing Umbraco website, assessing site performance, hosting architecture and security protocols, in addition to conducting a full evaluation of the solution’s underlying source code. This comprehensive appraisal was critical in identifying additional areas for improvement and setting the stage for a smooth migration to v10 of the CMS.

Technical Evaluation and Recommendations

In addition to providing fixed costs and timelines for the Umbraco upgrade project, Cantarus identified several additional enhancements during the review to improve the site’s performance, user experience, security, and back-office functionality: 

• Codebase Optimization: Consolidating and refining the existing code structure, enhancing the maintainability of the site.
• Styling and Image Optimization: Implementing Umbraco’s image cropper tool to improve the Content Editing experience.
• SEO Enhancements: Restructuring URLs, refining titles and descriptions, and ensuring all pages contain updated header tags to boost SEO performance.
• Performance Review: Refining image attributes, using WebP images for lower bandwidth usage, and minimizing network payloads to optimise site performance.
• Security Enhancements: Implementing a content-security-policy header, adding an extra layer of protection against potential threats.

User Acceptance Testing and Launch

The upgraded website was thoroughly tested during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase, allowing for a successful launch. This phase was instrumental in validating that the upgraded website and implemented enhancements functioned correctly, and met the project’s objectives.

The Results

Echodyne’s website now operates on a secure and fully-supported version of the Umbraco CMS, with a roadmap to upgrade their site further to Umbraco 13 to ensure it's longevity. This upgrade has also paved the foundation for future projects as part of Cantarus' Continuous Improvement package to further enhance the user experience. This approach will enable Cantarus to work with Echodyne to proactively support and optimize their digital presence through UX improvements backed by Google Analytics data and user feedback.