Switchfly relies on open source software because it is the most robust technology available. The open source software community collaborates to produce feature-rich, secure, and quickly evolving software that is trusted by web technology companies like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and eBay.
Platform Architecture
Switchfly combines years of travel industry expertise with cutting-edge best practices from Silicon Valley. Our engineers with experience at companies such as Sabre, Travelocity, and Expedia leverage diverse skill sets from developers with experience at companies such as Lockheed Martin, Google and VMware to rapidly evolve our code base. Our SaaS platform is efficient and scalable, with a multi-tenant code base running on shared hardware and discrete client database instances. Our extensive connector framework seamlessly integrates over 90 different GDS, CRS, CRM, and payment systems with configurable business rules to maximize efficient use of inventory.
Application Code
For web development, Switchfly uses a combination of Prototype, YUI, and JQuery JavaScript libraries with full embrace of HTML5. Behind the scenes, we rely primarily on Java while leveraging other languages when they are better suited for particular solutions. We enjoy the simplicity of lightweight POJOs with Spring HttpInvoker and Hibernate with distributed ehcache and memcached. All of this runs within a simple Tomcat server on Linux CentOS, while Jenkins provides continuous integration testing with a suite of TestNG unit tests and Selenium 2 integration scripts with every commit.
Database
Each Switchfly client has a discrete Postgresql database instance with pgBouncer used for pooling connections, an EMC storage array network for disk storage, and Lifekeeper for failover. Postgresql has legendary reliability and stability, and we are proud to be a sponsor of the Postgresql User Group in San Francisco. For our Big Data requirements, we implement an EMC Greenplum solution on a 10 Gbit backbone with 10 Tb of data.
Datacenter
Switchfly maintains a state-of-the-art facility with Savvis, a SAS-70 compliant Tier 1 data center provider. The facility boasts 24/7 security, video surveillance and on-site support personnel, as well as redundant network links, backup generators and full geographic failover support. Our hosting setup ensures that system uptime is at least 99.95%, and we also maintain a disaster recovery site at QTS to ensure business continuity under any circumstance. Switchfly is able to quickly serve our localized markets in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East by leveraging content distribution networks like Cotendo and Akamai. Redundant monitoring solutions from Pingdom, KeyNote, and Tealeaf are used to ensure the highest level of service across our platform.
Security & Standards
Switchfly follows the Open Web Application Security Project best practices for developing, testing and reviewing code. We have been validated as compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) version 2.0 requirements for Level 1 service providers and we are compliant with European Union Safe Harbor requirements to protect personal information. Switchfly also complies with the American Express Data Security Audit standards and the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE16).
With the ability to integrate proven technologies, the Switchfly platform performs reliably while new features are continuously added.
