Three dailies and their online editions in Paraná in Brazil have switched to a cloud-based version of EidosMedia's Méthode platform.

Media group Grpcom publishes the Gazeta do Povo, Jornal de Londrina and Jornal Tribuna.

Print and digital editions - which use a responsive design - are created from the same editorial content, automatically tailored for each publication format, with online editions handled by a dedicated Web CMS, the Méthode Portal Server (MPS).

To cope with peaks in visitor traffic, the MPS is hosted on a cloud platform provided by Amazon Web Services: Group research and development manager Silvia Zanella says this allows the publisher to allocate as much computing power as it needs, when needed: "We no longer have to keep reserves of server capacity standing idle, waiting for special events like elections or sports results that put pressure on our web sites."

The result is a significant saving in hardware and infrastructure costs. The Grpcom implementation - thought to be the first cloud deployment by a news media group in Latin America - allows the Méthode platform to scale smoothly from serving normal daily visitor traffic to the peaks associated with special events.

EidosMedia product manager Marco Cetola says cloud hosting is increasingly attractive to news publishers as a way of achieving dynamic scalability without heavy investment in server power: "The architecture of the portal server has been designed in collaboration with Amazon to facilitate cloud deployment by hooking into AWS tools such as 'clone server' and 'step up machine class'," he says.

The publisher also makes use of MPS' facility for piloting and launching new digital products. It recently created a website dedicated to the agribusiness sector, called Agronegocio with constantly updated information on crop prices, weather conditions, regulations and technical advice.

Grupo Paranaense de Comunicação (Grpcom) was founded in 2000, and is the largest media group in the dynamic region of Paraná, where the fast-growing economy is based on manufacturing, services and large-scale agriculture.