Black Friday and Beyond - Ctrl Alt Lead podcast

How Shopify scales the peak of peaks

Imagine this: it’s Black Friday, and millions of shoppers are clicking “Buy Now” at the same time.

It’s your most profitable time of year, but any interruption to your service ensures potential customers will leave.

For Shopify, which provides ecommerce services for millions of retailers, the end of the year isn’t just a busy time - it’s a global stress test for its infrastructure. How can it make sure its systems stay reliable when the stakes are at their highest?

In the latest episode of Ctrl Alt Lead, Shopify’s VP of Infrastructure, Mattie Toia, takes us behind the scenes on how the ecommerce giant prepares for the peak of peaks in November, December and January.

They delve into the strategies and tools Shopify starts to work on nearly a year in advance, making this episode essential listening for any IT leader grappling with scale, resilience or infrastructure.

Mattie explains how Shopify uses game days, data visualisation and artificial intelligence in its processes, ensuring resilience is built in from the start.

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