How Cleverbridge Achieved 100% Uptime: Scalable Architecture that Ensures Reliability

In 2024, Cleverbridge reached a noteworthy milestone that we’re proud to share: 100% service uptime in our ability to take new orders — an achievement we firmly believe is unmatched in the industry.

The story of our success, however, goes beyond a single metric. It underscores our dedication to building a trusted, secure, and resilient ecommerce platform for any kind of business model. 

How did we accomplish this feat? Through carefully designed software, strategic planning, and an emphasis on global scalability. In this blog, we’ll explore what contributed to our 2024 streak — and why we’re bullish about keeping it up.

The Power of Deploying Across Multiple Regions 

A key element of our success is a commitment to geo-redundancy. In practical terms, we operate our services from distinct geographical regions, ensuring that if one experiences a power outage or any other local disruption, the other continues running seamlessly. 

This multi-location approach doesn’t just serve as an emergency failover —  it’s an active strategy. By leveraging Cloudflare as our global edge platform, we can monitor conditions across regions, and use load balancing to adjust traffic flow, ensuring optimal performance and user experience for clients and end customers. 

Bridging Global Reach with Data Governance 

Reliable ecommerce requires global accessibility and substantial regulatory compliance. That’s why we anchor core data storage and order processing in Western Europe, leveraging our robust infrastructure and some of the world’s strictest data privacy laws for how data must be handled, protected, and kept private -  including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). 

At the same time, we want to bring our services closer to end customers worldwide. To achieve this, we’re developing additional order-taking resources in strategically important locations across the globe. These resources reduce latency, improve response times, and enhance the overall user experience when end users access our clients’ storefronts. 

Although orders are initially captured and validated in these new facilities, all core data storage and processing still take place in Western European. This architecture provides the best of both worlds: lightning-fast order-taking around the globe, backed by a centralized hub that ensures strict compliance, stable operations, and 24/7 reliability. 

Built-in Redundancy as Standard Practice 

Splitting operations across multiple regions is only part of the story. For many years, we’ve implemented well-established industry best practices within each location to eliminate single points of failure by building in multiple layers of redundancy: 

• Network Redundancy
  Each site includes independent and redundant internet connectivity, ensuring consistent access even if one provider experiences issues. 

• Energy Redundancy
  Our infrastructure locations meet or exceed industry standards for power backup, HVAC, and fire detection / suppression systems, ensuring uninterrupted operations even under challenging conditions. 
• Architectural Redundancy
  Each deployment environment is designed to withstand the failure of multiple components while continuing to provide uninterrupted service. Maintenance can also be performed without impacting customers, thanks to this built-in resilience. 

By aligning with proven industry standards, we’re able to maintain seamless service – even during maintenance – so our clients and their customers remain operational at all times. 

Resilient Software Architecture 

Resilience is a fundamental principle that shapes how we design and build our software. While robust infrastructure plays a role, it is the architectural decisions and engineering discipline behind our platform development that truly ensure reliability. 

Our critical system components are purposefully designed to operate independently of external dependencies. Even if a complete dependency fails, these services remain fully functional thanks to mechanisms like local caching, buffering, and asynchronous message handling. 

Order Processing That Never Stops 

Ecommerce operates around the clock, leaving zero room for downtime. Our architecture ensures that  orders are still accepted and processed even if specific backend components experience challenges. We achieve this with a modular design: 

1. Order Processing Layer
   This layer captures and validates incoming orders. If downstream systems are temporarily unavailable – due to planned maintenance or unexpected issues -orders are safely queued and forwarded automatically once those systems are back online. 
2. Supporting Systems
   Functions such as reporting and analytics are handled separately from the core order processing flow. This ensures that updates or interruptions to these systems do not impact a customer’s ability to place orders.

Our combination of intelligent order processing software and resilient architecture protects revenue opportunities and maintains customer satisfaction, regardless of any single component’s status. 

A Culture of Preparedness 

Our 100% uptime streak in 2024 reflects our culture of operational readiness where we regularly conduct Business Continuity Plan (BCP) testing to confirm rapid recovery from potential failures. At Cleverbridge, BCP is a company-wide initiative that involves cross-functional teams working together to ensure we’re prepared for any disruption, from localized technical failures to broader organizational or external incidents. 

By proactively identifying vulnerabilities and validating recovery procedures through routine testing, Cleverbridge ensures that all business critical functions can recover quickly and continue operating without disruption. 

In the future, we’ll further strengthen our position by investing heavily in:  

1. Monitoring & Alerts

   State-of-the-art monitoring tools deliver real-time, granular insights, enabling quick action at the earliest sign of an anomaly. 

2. Scalable Infrastructure 

   As client volumes surge or seasonal demand spikes, our distributed architecture seamlessly scales to meet increased traffic without sacrificing speed.

3. Evolving Security Protocols

   Our commitment to safeguarding transactions and personal data drives us to adopt the latest cybersecurity measures. We continually update every layer of the stack to address new threats. 

Bottom Line

Through a multi-pronged approach, we managed to make 2024 our best year ever from a reliability standpoint. We did so by investing in a modern hybrid cloud infrastructure, embracing data governance, and ensuring that redundancy was embedded in every part of our software.

While we can’t improve on 100% uptime, we can continue our pursuit of excellence through the strategy, infrastructure, and culture Cleverbridge has cultivated to support global ecommerce without compromise. From geo-redundancies to resilient architecture, every layer of our platform is built to scale, adapt, and perform under pressure. 

If you’re looking for a partner that can deliver enterprise-grade reliability and regulatory peace of mind, we’d love to talk. Contact us to explore how Cleverbridge can power your ecommerce business with confidence and continuity.