In today’s connected financial world, even one second of downtime can cost banks and payment companies thousands of dollars. The gap between fault-tolerant and traditional systems is not just about technology; it is about business survival. Payment processing systems handle millions of transactions worth billions every day. For this reason, continuous availability is not only an advantage but a must.
The Real Cost of Downtime
Financial services face some of the most serious losses when systems stop working. Research by Splunk shows financial institutions lose, on average $152 million every year due to outages. This includes $37 million in lost revenue and $22 million in regulatory fines. Gartner reports downtime costs of $5,600 per minute, and newer studies by Ponemon Institute say this can be as high as $9,000 per minute.
Why Traditional Systems Are Not Enough
Traditional payment systems built on normal servers have weaknesses that software alone cannot fix. They often have single points of failure. A simple hardware issue, software bug, or maintenance activity can stop the whole network.
Even with clustering and failover methods, there is always a short recovery period. During this time, transactions fail, cards are declined, and revenue stops. In payment processing, where customers expect instant service, even short interruptions can push clients to competitors.
HPE Nonstop: Built for Fault Tolerance
HPE Nonstop servers use a different approach. Instead of trying to stop all failures (which is impossible), they are designed to keep working even when failures happen. This way, payment systems continue to run smoothly during hardware issues, software errors, or maintenance.
New Nonstop systems reach 99.999% or even 99.9999% uptime. They use redundant processors that work together. If one processor fails, others continue without any pause. The failed part is isolated and replaced without stopping transaction processing.
Process Pairs: Continuous Transaction Flow
The key to Nonstop payment systems is process pairs. Each important function, like authorization, fraud detection, and settlement, runs in two processes across different processors. One works as the main process, the other as backup. If the main one fails, the backup takes over instantly, with no lost transactions.
Next-Generation Performance and Scale
The latest HPE Nonstop models, NS5 X5 and NS9 X5 (launched in 2025), bring more power:
- NS5 X5: Intel Xeon Bronze 3400 processors, up to 8 TB memory
- NS9 X5: Intel Xeon Gold 6400 processors, up to 8 TB memory
- 15% more performance than older versions
- 2.5x more network bandwidth on NS9 X5
This allows real-time fraud checks, complex routing, and huge spikes in transactions (like Black Friday sales). OmniPayments leverages this infrastructure to support up to 10,000 transactions per second, on the other hand Nonstop platform can scale even higher.
Maintenance Without Interruptions
One big benefit of Nonstop is maintenance without service breaks. Traditional systems need planned downtime, but Nonstop allows security patches, upgrades, and hardware replacement while transactions continue. This is important for global payments, where there is no true “off-peak” time.
Strong Security and Compliance
OmniPayments has been committed to Nonstop since its early days by offering advanced security:
- OmniCrypto for encryption
- FraudBlocker for real-time fraud prevention
- PCI DSS compliance
- 24/7 fraud monitoring
- Integration with Thales and Utimaco HSMs
These protections run without slowing down transaction processing.
The Business Benefits
Investing in HPE Nonstop gives payment companies clear value:
- Revenue protection: No downtime means no lost money.
- Efficiency: No need for complex downtime planning.
- Customer trust: Reliable systems keep merchants and users loyal.
- Compliance: Easier to meet strict financial regulations.
OmniPayments has worked with Nonstop systems since 1995, utilizing the services of over 175 programmers. We help banks replace outdated systems like BASE24, complete migrations in months, and ensure business continues to run without interruptions.
As digital payments grow, downtime becomes more dangerous. Real-time payments, central bank digital currencies, and global transactions all demand fault-tolerant systems. HPE Nonstop, together with OmniPayments, offers infrastructure that does not just recover from failures; it prevents failures from affecting business at all.
