Evaluating real-time credit-control server architectures implemented on a standard platform

The high non-functional requirements put on payment systems result in increasing complexity. One way of providing the expected quality is usage of a specialized platform. However, development on such a platform can be very expensive. In this paper we examine what level of quality can be expected when the development is done on a standard platform. We suggest a number of architectures and evaluate them from availability, reliability and performance perspectives. We present suggestions for the system developers concerning the choice of an appropriate architecture when a certain combination of qualities is required. Finally we identify problems we cannot solve using standard platforms.