SKARTIO empowers reactive architecture for digital commerce.
The building blocks
SKARTIO accommodates the following elements to deliver the functionality that any digital commerce business requires, through its commerce cloud platform.
- Two-speed architecture
- Instant cross-channel deployment of functionality
- Zero downtime
- Real-time data analytics
- Easy process configuration
- Product factory
- Automated scaling of IT platforms
- Secure architecture
Two-speed architecture:This implies a fast-speed, customer-centric front end running alongside a slow-speed, transaction-focused back end. For software-release cycles and deployment mechanisms, the customer-facing part should be modular, to enable quick deployment of new software by avoiding time-consuming integration work. In contrast, the transactional core systems of record must be designed for stability and high-quality data management, which leads to longer release cycles.
Instant cross-channel deployment of functionality: New micro services defining only a small amount of functionality, such as lookup of the next product a consumer would most likely purchase, should be deployable in an hour rather than in several weeks. Such micro services should also be available across all channels. Ideally, it should be possible to develop these services in multiple programming languages rather than being locked into a single development framework.
Zero downtime: In digital global operations, days-long maintenance windows are no longer an option. Upgrades of systems affecting the consumer’s experience should be seamless, using a concept that allows the deployment of new software or service in parallel with the old version. First, only about 1 percent of the user traffic is routed to the new version. Only when the new version fulfills a set of key performance indicators will all traffic be routed to the new version. Moreover, in daily operations, there should be fallback mechanisms in place so that issues arising in one service do not harm overall operations more than necessary. If, for instance, a retailer’s personalized recommendation service is unavailable, a random recommendation in a relevant category would be displayed rather than an annoying web error page.
Real-time data analytics: Customers generate data with every move they make within an app. The ability to analyze that information in real-time can make analytics an integral part of operational processes and not just a stand-alone capability. For example, one retailer analyzes customers’ purchases automatically when they pay with their credit cards; along with the receipt, the business provides a savings coupon for a product the customer will probably be interested in buying the next time he or she shops at the store.
Easy process configuration: Business users themselves should be able to change automated processes. This would allow them, for example, to eliminate unnecessary process steps without requiring time-consuming coding by an IT developer.
Product factory: Industries that provide digital products, such as banking and telecommunications, need to decouple the products from the processes. A bank, for example, would implement one sales process and reuse it for all products, such as accounts and cards.
Automated scaling of IT platforms: In a digital business, workloads expand and become harder to predict. Ideally, this load would be balanced across private- and public cloud environments, with mechanisms in place to ensure that when one provider has an outage, others can take over the workload.
Secure architecture: In a digital business model, cybersecurity must be an integral part of the overall application. Not only does the company have more valuable data to protect, making it more attractive to hackers, but the digital strategy also opens new interfaces to customers, suppliers, and partners — interfaces that can be exploited by hackers.
Our engineering team is constantly working on this path to deliver agility and experience for the business and for the customers.
This is why SKARTIO becomes different from any other SaaS e-commerce such as Shopify , Big-Commerce, etc. Try SKARTIO Cloud now!
