New Shift4 Data Center Offers Ten Times The Processing Power

Four years ago, when much of the hardware for Shift4s previous data center was acquired, it was considered state-of-the-art and even cutting edge. It provided 99.9% availability in 2003 and had not neared its capacity. The new data center was not developed to address any existing problems with Shift4s current center, but rather to expand upon the speed, reliability, redundancy and security present in the original data center and to create a system that could continue to grow with Shift4s customer base. The new data center, built on Dell PowerEdge Servers and Microsoft Windows 2000 technology, can handle at least ten times the transaction load as it did before. It offers increased bandwidth, high-speed connections to multiple and diverse Internet providers, dedicated authorization processing systems, increased database storage, a full capacity generator, better UPS systems and increased AC capabilities. While the Shift4 gateway services were returning some of the fastest authorization times in the industry, this new data center, and specifically, this new hardware shaved off an average of ¼ second for each transaction, which equates to a better cardholder experience. Another data center, one with an even larger load capacity, is being designed for inclusion in Shift4’s new corporate headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada and will go live this summer. This data center, combined with our new corporate facility, will be a big step in achieving Shift4s long-term goal of five-nines (99.999% availability).