"Super-Sizing Magento": Three big companies go big with e-commerce

It's a big move that will take the best of each company and result in a "super-sized Magento". It's not only a matter of relationships between companies, but the relationships between developing technologies that makes this partnership worthy of an in-depth look.

Three companies, one goal

Zerolag's Magento hosting solutions are designed to provide a speedy, reliable, and secure website for e-commerce merchants to sell their goods and services. When implementing Instart Logic's CDN and ClustrixDB to the current scheme, the end result is a massive increase in the level of service provided. Here's a breakdown:

a) ZeroLag hosts Magento stores, with a range of customisation and features for e-commerce sites; current hosting solutions offered are adequate for consistent Internet traffic, but does not address spiking or continual growth.

b) Instart Logic's Content Delivery Network (or CDN) assesses the best routes and best methods (streaming, formatting, etc.) to optimise the delivery of data to browsers accessing Magento stores.

c) ClustrixDB adds scalability to the existing Magento e-commerce platform to not only increase the potential amount of data stored and exchanged, but to give it the flexibility to handle increases in Internet traffic.

What does it all mean? E-commerce with improved speed and size, from the combination of developed database and networking technology. How does it all work? It's all in the details.

Content delivery networks, for speed

Instart Logic provides a CDN with a few elements that contribute to the faster delivery of content to Magento hosts. After all, if ZeroLag is hoping to expand their Magento solutions, it follows that speed will be necessary to keep up with the increase in size.

CDN's operate by caching and routing data, with its collection of servers deciding the best path to distributing content to web browsers. Each server has its own firewall, and the network overall is protected with cloud security features, like ProxyWall and DDoS Protection, to ensure the safety of the network and its data.

Sharing the load is only half the magic, however; Instart Logic provides an edge with 'Format Adaption', allowing their CDN to adjust file types and formats for the fastest delivery possible to browsers. As different sites would utilise different types of code, HTML as well as JavaScript streaming transmits data as necessary, based on individual requests.

Compared to other CDN providers' benchmarks, a 31% increase in page load times is expected, which makes for all the difference in the realm of e-commerce. One second of Page Load time has been proven to be a deciding factor in maintaining conversion rates, as illustrated by this ZeroLag infographic.

ClustrixDB, for scalability

Clustrix, a NewSQL database developer, will be providing the scalability necessary to expand Magento hosting as desired. It may be important to understand that 'scalability' is a term not referring to the simple increase of data storage limits, but a system's ability to manage and adapt the size of necessary data storage on the fly.

The importance of scalability is apparent in times when Internet traffic soars - Christmas season, for example. Various instances where e-commerce traffic might spike for some reason or another, known as 'flash sales', can be managed by combination of SQL code and high availability through fault tolerance.

ClustrixDB is a response to MySQL, which offers database storage, but only to an extent. Compared to MySQL benchmarks, completed checkouts are doubled and Page Views are tripled. The case is made for the high availability as not only essential to e-commerce, but also as the difference between low and high conversion rates.

The takeaway: 'Together' is 'better'

To return to an earlier point, underlying the newly forged relationship between ZeroLag, Instart Logic and Clustrix there is a more intricate relationship between technologies. All the elements that make up a successful e-commerce enterprise are each the product of years and years of development and application. As each piece of technology evolves it draws closer to the whole of technology - systems integrating with other systems and forming even larger systems.

Overwhelming much? Probably yes, but in the more narrow focus of e-commerce and Magento, it is still impressive to see the profound change technology has brought to the marketplace, and the new ways that companies take on competition through cooperation.