Contactless payments are predicted to grow at a rate of 20% from 2020 to 2027, with Europe leading the way.[1] As speed and reliability are paramount when delivering credit card payments to retailers, processing companies need to expedite payment services instantaneously, without any downtime.
This can be difficult to do given that digital payments is a two-fold process among multiple financial services partners:
- Front-end processors ensure customers have sufficient funds by routing transactions from merchants to the cardholder’s bank for authorization.
- Back-end processors accept settlements from front-end processors and move the money to a merchant’s issuing bank.
Dojo, a leading UK payment technology provider, wanted to deliver credit card processing services to businesses of all sizes faster than the existing industry average, without disruption. To reliably expedite payments to its growing customer base, Dojo looked for a colocation and digital infrastructure platform partner with the fast, secure and resilient interconnection needed for a scalable, high-performance hybrid multicloud environment.
Accelerating payment processing via a hybrid multicloud infrastructure
Dojo creates the tools and technology that empower its more than 50,000 customers across the UK to spend less time thinking about payments and more time focused on their core business. The company’s products include integrated card machines that process payments quickly, reliably and securely. Also, the card machines integrate with a Dojo app that lets businesses track their transactions instantly. The company’s competitive advantage was processing payment transactions from more than 70,000 card machines quickly. To do this, it required secure, high-speed communication between its cloud providers—Oracle Cloud, AWS and Google Cloud— and its on-premises hardware.
To accomplish its goals, Dojo embarked on a multicloud strategy for its digital payment processing platform. However, it also needed to host physical, on-premises entry points for payment providers such as Visa and MasterCard, as well as point-to-point encryption devices and hardware security modules (HSMs) for processing security operations based on digital payment regulations.
Dojo partnered with Equinix to create a resilient, hybrid multicloud infrastructure that securely accelerated access to services on Oracle Cloud, AWS and Google Cloud, and securely connected this physical infrastructure to Dojo’s cloud-based applications.
High-speed, low-latency on-ramps to clouds deliver faster financial transactions
As maximum reliability and minimal latency is key for every single digital payment transaction, Dojo built its resilient, secure, high-performance hybrid multicloud infrastructure on Platform Equinix®. Equinix Fabric™ and Network Edge services helped speed digital payment processing and authorization to its customers.
The company deployed systems and networks in two UK-based Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers, where it could securely operate its physical devices and speed access to applications in the public cloud. Equinix Fabric software-defined interconnection enabled Dojo to securely connect to private cloud on-ramps with high-speed, single-millisecond latency to accelerate customer payment processing and authorization without going over the public internet. As Dojo’s front-end application was running on both Google Cloud and AWS for greater resiliency, Equinix Fabric provided the company with reliable private interconnection between both clouds using Google Cloud Interconnect and AWS Direct Connect.
Network Edge services from Equinix expedited the deployment of Cisco CSR 1000V virtual routers in London and Frankfurt IBX facilities to speed and scale connectivity to the public clouds virtually, without additional hardware. According to Nick Fryer, Dojo’s CTO, “The connectivity between Oracle Cloud, AWS and Google Cloud is crazy fast.”
Equinix Internet Access (formerly Equinix Connect) provided internet service provider (ISP) connectivity to the Dojo hybrid multicloud infrastructure on Platform Equinix, and Equinix Metro Connect connected the data centers together. Dojo’s geo-redundant infrastructure delivers active-active application failover so its customers can continuously access its payments platform, especially during peak sales periods.
Hybrid multicloud connectivity to Oracle Cloud delivers faster payment services
Dojo’s front-end credit card payment services are accessible to customers via AWS and Google Cloud, which connect to the company’s payment network switch and clearing processes (i.e., Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club International) on Oracle Cloud via Equinix Fabric with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) FastConnect. Data from OCI is sent via data pipelines using Equinix Fabric to a Google Cloud Storage data lake and then on to BigQuery on Google Cloud for further operational activity and analytics.
As COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions eased, hospitality businesses began to generate a massive increase in traffic, requiring Dojo to deploy its new payment services to Oracle Cloud in a very short timeframe. According to Fryer, “It feels like you have a rack hanging on the side of a public cloud. We’ve seen amazing service from Oracle; in problem solving and strategic planning.”
Together, Oracle and Equinix are helping customers like Dojo to accelerate the realization of value from their business-critical applications in the cloud, when using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services via OCI FastConnect with Equinix Fabric. From ultrafast transaction speeds with integrated payments, to enabling next-day transfers to customers, Dojo is able to press ahead with reinventing digital payments using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services in partnership with Platform Equinix.”- James Allerton-Austin, Senior Director of Cloud Strategy and OCI Centre of Excellence, Oracle EMEA
Delivering fast, reliable payment services globally
Dojo is able to reliably ensure secure payments for its customers and attract larger businesses on Platform Equinix, while delivering payment services 80% faster than the industry average, without any disruption. As Dojo’s business grows internationally, it can instantly expand its digital infrastructure on Platform Equinix, with its more than 240 global data centers. And as sustainability is a key consideration for Dojo’s business, Equinix and its commitment to use 100% clean and renewable energy for its global platform is aligned with Dojo’s goals.
Learn more about creating resilient, high-performance hybrid multicloud infrastructures by reading the Dojo customer case study.
[1] Precedence Research, “Contactless Payment Market,” 2022.
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