The growth in digital transactions, along with new requirements such as high availability and real-time secure payment systems, puts pressure on financial institutions and payment processors to make payment systems highly scalable. This is where technologies like HPE NonStopX come into play in the enterprise.
NonStopX from HPE is a computing platform with high availability that can operate at optimum scale and without interruption, thus is perfect for payments. This article aims to analyze the HPE NonStopX’s benefits for payment applications regarding scalability, availability, reliability, and security.
What is HPE NonStopX Technology?
The HPE NonStopX consists of a range of fault-tolerant, scalable, and highly available server platforms built on the NonStop operating system for use by businesses with high availability concerns and needs. While other platform technologies hold a set of applications to a server, which often fails as a whole or provides only minimal access to applications in case of hardware or software failure, the HPE NonStopX system guarantees that all the applications are continuously available across the entire system without exception. They are designed for performing high volume and low delay tasks, so applications that require steady or real-time throughput of data for results, for instance payment processing systems.
NonStopX is developed as the platform for Intel x86 specifications and consists of a mix of communal and individual hardware and software enablers that ensure availability and performance. The system is designed with a distinctive modularity in its architecture that enables it to manage individual component failures with no conflict with the general system performance. It does this makes it highly useful in sectors where time cannot afford to be wasted, such as financial transactions and payment systems.
The Growing Demand for Scalable Payment Solutions
When it comes to digital payments, this scalability must be achieved in shorter cycles and constantly. For payment processors, financial institutions and merchants, there is a requirement for systems that are scalable as transaction volumes grow, or introduce new types of payment methods and ensure that the customers’ journeys are smooth across payment channels.
But to fit this need, scalable payment solutions do not only facilitate an increased number of transactions as the business expands. They have to be highly available and high throughput, with low latency, and with strong security considerations. The availability of the infrastructure and security, with the ability to scale this infrastructure at a high rate is a challenge faced by payment solution providers.
HPE NonStopX and Its Role in Scalable Payment Solutions
When it comes to HPE NonStopX and its role in providing scalable payment solutions, the following pointers can help gain a better understanding of the same:
High Availability and Fault Tolerance
The first and arguably one of the greatest strengths of the HPE NonStopX technology in payment solutions is that it is naturally highly available. Payment systems, whether a card-swipe transaction, an Internet banking payment, or an international money transfer, cannot become dormant. Every downtime incident interrupts a business organization’s cash flow, tarnishing its image and disappointing customers even for a short time.
NonStopX servers from HPE are built with fallback DNA to make a system that is always on. NonStopX has a distinct fault-tolerant design, in that if one part of the system, say a processor or even a memory unit, were to fail then the system does not stop. This capability is extremely important for facilitating payment processing systems to process hundreds of thousands and even millions of transactions per second with no potential disruption of service.
Typically, in a given HPE NonStopX, there are many processors, and if one fails, the backup processor is always on standby to take over. It safeguards the interests of payment transactions so that such transactions occur without interruption or hang.
Scalability for Growing Payment Demands
The global shift towards e-commerce, mobile payments, and digital currencies is driving an exponential increase in transaction volumes. Payment solutions must be able to scale both vertically and horizontally to meet these demands. NonStopX technology offers the scalability needed to support this growth by allowing users to scale the system incrementally without disrupting service.
With HPE NonStopX, payment service providers can add additional resources—whether it’s processing power, storage, or networking capacity—as needed. This flexibility means that payment processors can manage increasing transaction volumes without replacing their entire infrastructure. NonStopX’s ability to scale horizontally (adding more nodes) or vertically (upgrading existing nodes) ensures that the system remains efficient and cost-effective as it grows.
Real-Time Transaction Processing
Payment solutions require real-time data processing capabilities to ensure instant payment approvals and fraud detection. HPE NonStopX systems are optimized for real-time transaction processing with extremely low latency. Whether processing a simple credit card transaction, handling micro-payments, or validating complex multi-currency cross-border transactions, NonStopX ensures that payments are processed quickly and accurately.
In payment solutions where milliseconds matter, HPE NonStopX technology excels by minimizing data handling and processing delays, providing customers with faster transactions and businesses with quicker cash flow.
Security and Compliance
Security is paramount in payment systems. HPE NonStopX technology integrates robust security mechanisms, including end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and real-time threat monitoring. These features protect sensitive financial data from unauthorized access or breaches.
Furthermore, payment systems must comply with various regulations such as PCI DSS, GDPR, and regional standards. NonStopX systems are designed to meet these compliance requirements while ensuring high security. The platform’s ability to maintain secure data while offering high availability and performance makes it an attractive choice for payment service providers that must adhere to strict regulatory standards.
Cost Efficiency and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
NonStopX systems may be initially more expensive than their traditional server counterpart technologies, but most points of the TCO show that they are a far better long-term proposition in virtually all respects. Measures used by payment service providers for cost-cutting include avoiding expensive downtimes, lowering the vulnerability to risky attacks, and stressing far less on the frequent replacement of hardware. Lastly, the growth nature of the infrastructure without major changes assures the system’s cost-effectiveness once the size of the business increases.
Case Studies and Real-World Applications
Several companies already use HPE NonStop technology in the financial services sector to enhance their payment processing capacity. These organizations have been able to save time by integrating HPE NonStop, resulting in minimizing the time taken for transactions while at the same time satisfying their customers. However, major payment processors and international banks have had one of the critical motivations for adopting NonStop as the system was designed for handling thousands of transactions at once, giving them an added edge over their counterparts in the market.
One example of this can be seen in the banking sector. One of the top 5 banks in the United States of America switched to OmniPayment’s HPE NonStop Technology. This bank maintained a network of 15,000+ ATMs and thousands of retail POS (Point-Of-Sale) devices. The choice of NonStop allowed the bank to gain two advantages:
- It allowed the bank to keep its highly available NonStop servers in operation even though their previous HP NonStop provider declared the termination of NonStop services.
- Additionally, it helped the bank save millions of dollars in licensing costs over the system’s lifespan.
Thus, the implementation of HPE NonStop allowed the bank to cut transaction time and avoid disruptions, which, in turn, improved company performance and customer relations.
Conclusion
As payment systems become more complex and transaction volumes continue to rise, HPE NonStopX technology offers a powerful solution for scalable, reliable, and secure payment processing. Its ability to ensure high availability, support rapid scaling, process transactions in real-time, and meet stringent security requirements makes it an ideal choice for organizations looking to build future-proof payment solutions.
For payment service providers aiming to stay ahead of the competition and offer superior customer experiences, investing in HPE NonStopX technology is not just a technical decision—it’s a strategic one that will help ensure their systems can meet the demands of tomorrow’s payment landscape.
OmniPayments, powered by HPE NonStopX, offers unparalleled scalability, fault tolerance, and speed to keep your payment systems running 24/7, regardless of transaction volume. Contact OmniPayments today to learn how HPE NonStopX can help you achieve high availability and scalability, ensuring your payment systems are always online and performing at their best.
