Technology
PaaS
TxVia offers a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) delivery model, a progression of software-as-a-service (SaaS). PaaS provides a secure platform, complete with the application development, data storage and other tools required to run multi-tenanted, massively scalable payments and financial services systems. For card processing, Gartner identified PaaS in 2008 as the future dominant delivery model.
PaaS allows for the rapid and cost-effective creation of highly customized and fully segregated transaction processing platforms.
TxDev
TxVia implements PaaS with a proprietary payment domain-specific model-driven architecture (MDA). With MDA, we utilize a web-start integrated development environment (IDE)—TxDev—to describe client-specific, end-to-end processing platforms in a highly graphical, diagrammatic manner. A complete solution can be modeled--from online and offline batch processing data flows, work flows, account flows, service level agreements, Web interfaces, IVR, Web Service APIs and custom integrations. TxVia provides a fully documented template library for the implementation of standard requirements, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express message processing, load network integrations, and cardholder and operator user interfaces.
Since TxVia captures business requirements in "processing models" instead of code bases, they are inherently decoupled from technical implementation and TxVia realizes an estimated ten-fold (10x) development efficiency when compared to the traditional coding required by other delivery models.
TxVia's approach eliminates the "black box" nature of processing that others utilize, which gives clients little to no transparency into their transaction processing system.
A sample screen illustrating the highly transparent nature of TxVia's IDE is shown here:
Once completed, processing models are automatically compiled by the TxDev directly into byte code, generating custom transaction processing platforms which can be deployed into an environment of the client's choosing. While TxVia can host the platform, a client can opt to host its platform in-house or with a third party. Service level agreements can also be defined and tracked throughout any number of monitoring points, with breaches observable in the running system and automated messages optionally triggered allowing for quick remediation of issues.
On an ongoing basis, new capabilities can be modeled, facilitating the rapid introduction of new features and functionalities. Since TxDev client-specific processing platforms are generated entirely and systematically from processing models, new technologies and architectures can be accommodated with a straightforward recompilation of models. In the long term, the ability to compile and deploy the same models to new and yet unknown architectures and technologies enables clients to avoid obsolescence and the otherwise inevitable cycle of replatforming.
The TxVia solution is designed to minimize the use of clients' internal resources, and can be configured to require less resource than deploying and managing a typical third-party processing relationship.
Data Grids
TxVia's transaction processing platform data is managed by an advanced in-memory partitioned data grid that can economically scale online processing to tens of thousands of transactions per second across terabytes of account-on-file data. This grid approach provides predictability in the sizing of processing capacity to meet the needs of network-based payment systems, the ability to handle peaks and a clear path to cost-effectively increase capacity over time. The grid supports wide-area networks, so that compute resource may be distributed geographically. Additionally, TxVia's PaaS delivery model and security innovations allow platforms to exist within public elastic compute clouds, providing automatic scaling up and down of infrastructure to support varying loads.
TxVia supports active-active configuration processing for all its platforms, both within the TxVia infrastructure and the client's infrastructure and all data, without exception, is stored encrypted with AES-256 at all times, with keys optionally protected using Hardware Security Modules (HSMs).
Client Control
Instead of relying on TxVia, a client processing platform can utilize TxVia's IDE and templates to create, manage and enhance their platform. TxVia can assist in the task of transforming a client's business requirements into models, or a client can use TxVia tools and templates and, with appropriate training, take complete control over the introduction of new features and functionality for its platform.
TxVia provides a model-driven configuration management system that utilizes automated, rigorous, continuous integration testing to reduce issues typically realized with overly used and brittle data-driven systems. All option changes entered into a web-based workflow management system go through a barrage of compliance, certification, unit and integration tests before being deployed into the production environment. In addition, model developers and QA personnel can work with production configurations while maintaining PCI-DSS compliance. The TxVia solution also provides for data-driven configuration in the handful of situations where the business case warrants. The long-term effect of a primarily model-driven configuration process is a robust framework for managing option complexity.