Fyno's reliability as a SaaS infrastructure platform

Contents

‍Introduction: Navigating Reliability and SPOF for using Fyno's communication infrastructure

In the realm of technological innovations, reliability stands as a linchpin determining the success of businesses. This guide serves as a deep dive into the evaluation of Fyno, a leading notification infrastructure, across 15 crucial parameters that define its reliability.

Reflecting on our earlier article, we acknowledged the omnipresence of Single Points of Failure (SPOF) in the technological landscape. Whether businesses opt for external tools or internal development, the specter of SPOF is an inherent consideration. The blog on SPOF and reliability underscored the complexity of this facet, urging businesses to navigate these challenges strategically.

Now, as we focus our lens specifically on Fyno, we aim to showcase how our platform addresses the SPOF dilemma and aligns with the broader concept of reliability. This evaluation is not just a scrutiny of technical prowess but an exploration of Fyno's commitment to transparency, adaptability, and client satisfaction.

Join us as we unravel the layers of Fyno's reliability, demonstrating how it serves as a dependable ally in managing multi-channel communications.

Evaluating Fyno's Reliability: A Deep Dive into 20 Key Parameters

1. Legacy: For How Long This Software Has Been Around

Fyno has been in operation for over 18 months.  It was founded by cPaaS experts Aniketh and Ashish who previously built and scaled a global cPaaS company called Kaleyra.  

Kaleyra was built from a small office in Bangalore, India and now is a TATA company, with its legacy spanning over 15 years & counting.  We aim similarly to build a legacy software company, but this time, operate from a position of strength as we have years of communication experience at the foundation, to throttle our growth.

2. Transparency on Uptimes

Fyno maintains transparency regarding its uptime. Clients can access real-time and historical uptime data here., showcasing Fyno's commitment to honesty and accountability in delivering uninterrupted services.

The uptime is distinctly visible for key micro services that Fyno operates.  As on date, the critical functional notification delivery services have never seen any downtimes (ie, it has ensured 100% uptime).

The status page does not only reflect uptimes, but also provides a detailed log on the downtime incidents, ie, the cause, duration of downtime, corrective measures taken and so on.  

Like everything built in this world, Fyno acknowledges that building a scalable platform needs to go through series of iteration to make it better everyday.  We will never promise that we are downtime proof, but from a relative measurement, we will be better than every other alternative you will evaluate. Its not a rhetoric claim!, but our engineering prowess.

3. Contractual Guarantees on Uptimes

Banking on our engineering expertise of building scalable notification systems, Fyno takes its commitment to uptime seriously.  We offer contractual guarantees of at least 99% uptime.  For enterprise contracts, our uptime SLAs are inched higher.  

4. People Building the Product, Their Expertise, and Background

Fyno boasts a team with diverse expertise in communication technology. The backgrounds of the founders, the founding team and the engineers on board showcase a wealth of knowledge and relevant experience, ensuring a strong foundation for continuous improvement.

5. Other Customers Trusting Their Product

Fyno's clientele comprises well-respected organizations across segments, from enterprises and mid-market to early scaling organisations.  The trust bestowed by these clients serves as a practical benchmark for Fyno's dependability and reliability.  

We boast about the well managed relationship that we have built with each one of our customers, so much that each of our customers are always happy to spare a few minutes and share feedback about Fyno.  We will not guarantee that each of our customers will only say positive things about Fyno, but we are very confident that everyone of our customers will rank Fyno 10/10 for reliability, support and expertise.

6. How Robust is Disaster Recovery Setup

Fyno has an active and a robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Setup (DRP).  Many organisations may discount the value of a BCP/ DRP in early days.  Setting up a BCP and DRP is expensive and time consuming.  It also delays the development cycle of the product.  Yet, we at Fyno decided to consider these as table stakes.  

While our application is hosted on AWS, we have back instances running in different geographies that is configured to automatically switch on if the primary instance encounters any disruption. Unless there is a massive country wide disaster (which is almost impossible), Fyno can never have service disruption.

The time to backup/ recovery is also negligible or immaterial.  While offering an enterprise grade communication infrastructure, reliability, scale and security weigh equally to the functional benefits of a tool.  Building a new feature was as important as ensuring security and reliability. So instead of waiting for product maturity, we invested in BCP and DRP early on and this is one of the strongest factor for being able to onboard enterprise customers.  

7. Compliance with SOC 2, ISO, and Other Audit Certifications

Fyno adheres to industry standards, holding certifications such as SOC 2, ISO and GDPR. This commitment to security and compliance is a tangible expression of Fyno's dedication to maintaining a secure and dependable environment.  

8. Data Security: Safeguarding Sensitive Information

Fyno acknowledges that while operating as a communication stack, sensitive user data like email addresses, mobile numbers and other user touch points will be transmitted through Fyno’s platform.  This also includes replaceable placeholders / values that are more personalised to a specific users.    

While you will find a dedicated landing page here where Fyno transparently details its security approach, following are quick pointers on how Fyno ensures that the data passing through Fyno is always protected:

Encryption for PII and Critical Communication Values/Variables

Fyno employs encryption protocols to shield Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and critical communication values/variables from unauthorized access. This strategic use of encryption acts as a formidable barrier, preventing data breaches and ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential.

Hashing for Enhanced Data Redaction

Understanding that different businesses have unique data privacy requirements, Fyno provides an additional layer of security through one-way hashing.  Fyno uses the SHA-256 protocol to hash sensitive information, that redacts the stored data in Fyno’s database. This ensures an extra level of protection, especially when handling information that needs to be concealed or anonymized.

Flexibility with Optional Tags

Enable Masking (encryption) and Hashing on with a simple toggle

Fyno places control in the hands of its users by offering encryption and hashing as optional tags. Companies can seamlessly switch these features on or off based on their specific security and compliance needs. This flexibility allows businesses to tailor their data security measures to align with industry standards, regulatory requirements, and internal policies.

Data truncation

Fyno understands that some organisations in regulated sectors may need deletion of data at regular intervals.  Fyno offers data truncation to ensure that regulated companies don’t have to additionally think of data with Fyno, while meeting their own data compliances.

Additionally, we are also one of the first movers to ensure compliance with Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 of India.  Our platform is capable of syncing with any third party applications that enterprises / regulated businesses will use, thereby acting as a compliant data fiduciary.  

9. Scalability

Fyno is designed for seamless auto-scaling, accommodating requirements of large businesses that use Fyno.  For managing large scale communication requirements, Fyno is built with queuing mechanisms that can support billions of request every month.

For businesses with ultra large communication volumes, Fyno offers flexible packages of maintaining dedicated queues or deploy dedicated instance on request.  

10. Support and Responsiveness

Fyno's support system is characterized by responsiveness, availability, and the quality of assistance provided. A reliable support structure contributes significantly to the overall dependability of the platform.

We have strict SLAs for first response and complete transparency on resolution process.  We are a tool first company that leverages modern technology stack and ticketing solutions that enable transparent resolution.    

11. Flexible Pricing Plans

Fyno offers flexibility in contracts, allowing clients to tailor agreements based on their specific needs. The plans are also designed to ensure that customers only pay for what they use.  The plans are well designed after thorough research, needs of businesses of various kinds and value realisation opportunities.

Our contracts are flexible to accomodate pricing based on number of API calls, notification counts or number of users.  This ensures 360 degree coverage of all expected pricing plans based on specific needs of businesses.  

12. Tailored Solutions for Different Business requirements

Fyno's modular approach is inspired by infrastructure solutions like AWS, Stripe and many other highly scaled companies. Fyno understands that communication use-cases are not straight jacketed and each organisation will have some set of unique requirements that will often not match others.

Fyno takes a modular approach while building and enhancing its offerings.  Stay true to its “infrastructure” characterization, every feature set Fyno develops is extremely malleable and modular, allowing product and engineering teams to fulfil their use-cases.  

13. Innovative Features and Functionality

While we want to ensure that Fyno is capable of solving almost all use-cases around communications, we do not rush into developing everything that our customers require.  We are an innovation focused team and we are on a continuous loop to find the fastest, easiest and a scalable way of fulfilling any requirement.  

We use a ‘RPR test’ approach to build new features.  As long as any requirement passes the following RPR test, the requirement will find its way in Fyno’s roadmap:

  • Relatability test:  Is the feature / improvement related to communication?
  • Possibility test: Is the resolution not possible through existing feature-set?
  • Repeatability test: Is there repeatability of the use-case with other customers?

14. Balancing Commitment and Flexibility with Long-Term Contracts

Fyno is committed to long term serviceability.  We acknowledge that using Fyno puts us closer to the core of our customer’s application and letting us go could mean potential business disruption. To address this and ease decision making, Fyno offers long term contracts with flexibilities and capabilities to ensure that access to Fyno and its functionality is uninterrupted under ANY circumstance.  

15. Certainty and Predictability in Pricing

Long-term contracts with Fyno translate to certainty and predictability in pricing. Businesses can plan their budgets with confidence, knowing that the financial commitment to Fyno is established and stable. This approach aligns with Fyno's goal of fostering a transparent and trust-based relationship with its clients.  Most of our customers are keen to tie-us for over 24 months giving them a negotiation free renewal.

Elevating Communication Reliability to New Heights

As we conclude our in-depth evaluation of Fyno across key parameters, it is abundantly clear that Fyno is not just a communication platform; it is a paragon of dependability, designed to elevate communication solutions to new heights.

Fyno's commitment to transparency, adaptability, and client satisfaction echoes through its meticulous approach to addressing Single Points of Failure (SPOF) challenges. By navigating these complexities strategically, Fyno positions itself as a resilient and reliable communication infrastructure.

In the intricate landscape of communication technology, the concept of Single Points of Failure (SPOF) has been scrutinized, revealing that absolute elimination is a mirage. As we bring this evaluation of Fyno to a close, it's crucial to recognize that the absence of absolute SPOF eradication should not be viewed as a shortcoming, but rather as a nuanced consideration.

Fyno, as we have dissected across multiple parameters, is not SPOF-free, but this evaluation should always be measured relative to the alternatives (in-house development, competition etc.). The pertinent question is not whether Fyno has eliminated every potential point of failure but whether the trade-off of accepting an inherent SPOF risk is outweighed by the robust, mature, and scalable communication infrastructure that Fyno delivers.

In this relative measurement, the answer resounds, a resounding affirmation in favor of Fyno. The journey with Fyno isn't just about avoiding SPOF; it's about embracing a dynamic, cutting-edge communication marvel that empowers businesses to navigate the future of customer communications.

Choosing Fyno is not merely an acceptance of SPOF risks; it's a strategic decision to leapfrog into the latest realm of communication technology, where innovation, scalability, and dependability converge.