The Challenge
Layer7 provides contact center and automated calling services for companies in the finance, banking, and retail sectors. It supports clients with converged software and connectivity solutions for optimizing key processes in management of customer interactions. Layer7 processes more than 200 million calls and 3 million SMS messages for clients each month, and the company handles more than 680 million transactions per month. Layer7 applications are mission critical and must be available daily from 6 am to 11 pm leaving limited time for updates and planned downtime.
The company has grown significantly amid overall market growth. Layer7 growth has been steeped in value added services related to customer support and debt management. With a business-friendly regulated market for debt collection services, retailers and banks have turned to Layer7 for help in managing contact with customers and in helping customers manage their payments. With so much growth in its client base and services, Layer7 wanted to add support for its growing transaction volumes. The team also wanted advice on architecture of applications and databases that would support future growth.
The Solution
Layer7 researched potential partners that could help the company address database issues and provide expertise over time. The Layer7 team found a Percona blog about an issue similar to one Layer7 had faced, and the team was able to quickly implement a fix that stopped the problem from affecting performance. Based on the evidence of Percona expertise, the Layer7 technical team opted for Percona Managed Services for help with critical application databases and management. As a result, Layer7 relies on Percona’s tailored managed database services to manage its database complexity.
Layer7 runs Percona Server for MySQL 5.7 for its main SaaS applications, providing redundancy and high availability for these services. These applications support the company’s primary business of enabling and enhancing customer interactions, which are highly transactional, as well as all the caching, statistics, and log data that the service creates. Alongside this, Layer7 uses Percona Server for MySQL to support its VOIPMonitor metadata service, which provides management and troubleshooting data for the core applications.
Working With Percona
Layer7 works with Percona on preparation and implementation of updates and changes to Layer7 applications and services. Percona database experts provide insight and consulting advice on potential improvements to Layer7 database deployments. Percona is on-call for those implementations as they occur. Percona provides Layer7 with support and consultancy expertise that matches the scale and volume of transactions that occur. With Persona insight, guidance, and support, the Layer7 team can manage scaling of its infrastructure with no unplanned downtime or threats to availability. Layer7 also can now support its internal team more effectively and substantially reduce risk of burnout.
