Closing the Cascade Website Hosting Gap | eWay Corp Hosting

The Production Gap: Why Higher Ed Websites Fail During the Hand-off from Cascade CMS

The Hidden Infrastructure of Student Success

In the Higher Education sector, digital presence is a high-stakes endeavor. Institutions invest heavily in world-class Content Management Systems like Cascade CMS to manage complex workflows and ensure brand governance. However, because Cascade CMS is a SaaS product hosted by Hannon Hill, many IT departments mistakenly believe their entire digital ecosystem is “covered.”

The reality is that while your content management is hosted in a secure SaaS cloud, your production website—the actual destination where students, parents, and donors land—is often hosted on separate, under-powered, or non-optimized infrastructure. This creates the Cascade Website Hosting Gap. At eWay Corp, we specialize in bridging this gap with mission-critical engineering designed for the unique publishing patterns of the academic world.

Understanding the Cascade Website Hosting Gap
When a user “publishes” from Cascade CMS, the system pushes files to a production server via SFTP or other protocols. This is the moment where the “SaaS safety net” ends and your institution’s own infrastructure takes over.

If this production environment is not architected for high-availability, several points of failure emerge:

• The Publishing Bottleneck: A massive “Publish All” command can overwhelm a standard production server, causing lag or failed transfers.
• The Traffic Spike Paradox: The SaaS CMS remains live during a crisis, but the production server crashes under the weight of 100,000 concurrent users during an admissions deadline.
• The Security Delta: While the CMS is secure, the production server may lack the HECVAT-ready hardening required for modern institutional compliance.

Engineering for Resilience: Moving Beyond “Basic” Hosting
To solve the Cascade Website Hosting Gap, Higher Ed IT leaders must move away from generic web hosting and toward White Glove Managed Hosting. This means building a production environment that mirrors the reliability of the SaaS CMS it serves.

1. Elastic Infrastructure on AWS
   As an AWS Consulting Partner, eWay Corp utilizes Auto Scaling. We don’t just give you a server; we build a cluster that breathes. When your production site receives a surge of traffic, our infrastructure automatically scales to meet the demand, ensuring your public-facing site stays live even when the “hand-off” from the CMS is at its peak.
2. Specialized Caching for Static and Dynamic Content
   Cascade CMS often publishes static files, which are incredibly fast—if the server is optimized. We implement advanced Edge Caching and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to ensure that your “published” files are served from a location closest to the user, reducing latency and protecting the origin server from exhaustion.

Security, Compliance, and the 24/7 Mandate
In Higher Education, a website failure isn’t just an IT issue; it’s a PR crisis and a potential compliance violation.

• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee: We provide a service level agreement that matches the institutional needs of a modern campus.
• HECVAT and FERPA Alignment: We architect production environments that pass the most rigorous university audits.
• White Glove Support: Unlike generic hosts, our 24/7 Support team consists of AWS Certified Engineers who understand exactly how a production server should interact with a SaaS CMS like Cascade.

Conclusion: Completing the Digital Circle
The investment in Cascade CMS is only as valuable as the site the user actually sees. By closing the Cascade Website Hosting Gap, eWay Corp ensures that your production environment is just as resilient, secure, and professional as the content you create within your CMS.

Don’t let the “hand-off” be your point of failure. Contact eWay Corp today to audit your production environment and secure your 2026 academic cycle.