The number of iDEAL transactions is constantly increasing. More and more merchants, consumers, and companies that offer payment services rely on its availability. Some initiatives were launched claiming to measure and report iDEAL’s availability. Consequently, the press started quoting these findings. However, it’s not that simple to pinpoint the exact cause or consequence of disturbances related to iDEAL, since for every payment a staggering amount of information is exchanged between four actors in the iDEAL protocol.
In order to improve the accuracy of iDEAL’s availability information, on request of Betaalvereniging Nederland, Maxcode developed a real-time measuring platform that includes input from key merchants and processors. The platform collects and presents the information to consumers and merchants in a clear way, taking the network characteristics of iDEAL into account. The real-time availability collection and presentation is integrated with Microsoft’ Azure architecture, allowing for automated scaling to handle peak loads in page visits throughout feasible outage of iDEAL.
