For many manufacturers, the product configurator is no longer an add-on but the way orders and enquiries come in. Customers put together awnings, doors, machines or print products themselves, see the price and order straight away. If the configurator fails, exactly this path stops – in the shop the product can no longer be added to the cart, on the website no enquiry arrives.
For companies where the configurator is this central, we offer the Enterprise license: your configurator runs on its own high-availability instance – with two servers in two data centres that back each other up.
Why availability matters so much for a configurator
- The configurator sits in the buying process. Unlike an information page, it is the step before the cart or the enquiry. Without it there is no price and no valid configuration.
- Outages hit you at the wrong time. Many customers configure in the evening and at weekends – exactly when nobody is watching.
- Connected systems depend on it. If parts lists, article numbers or prices flow from the configurator into your ERP and inventory management, an outage stops more than just a product page.
Shared platform or your own instance
In the Basic, Professional and Ultimate plans, your configurator runs on our shared platform. It is carefully operated and monitored – but there is no guaranteed availability.
With the Enterprise license you get your own instance: your own admin, your own addresses such as admin-yourcompany.configento.app and cloud-yourcompany.configento.app, and your own database. It is separate from the shared platform – a disruption or heavy load at other customers does not affect you.
How a high-availability instance is built
- Two servers in two data centres in Germany. Your instance runs on both at the same time. One serves the requests, the second is on warm standby.
- One fixed address that can move. Shops and websites reach the configurator through an IP address that we can move from one server to the other within seconds. No DNS record needs to change, and nothing needs to be adjusted in the shop.
- Continuously mirrored data. Every change in the database – components, prices, rules, versions – is transferred to the second server immediately.
- Images and files independent of the servers. They live in a separate object storage that both servers access.
- Daily backups on both servers, in addition to the mirroring.
What happens when something fails
A watchdog checks every minute whether the active server answers – not just whether it is reachable, but whether the database, cache and price calculation work.
- If the active server fails to answer several times in a row, the watchdog decides: if only the application is disrupted, the address moves to the second server immediately.
- If the whole server is gone, the mirrored database on the second server becomes the leading one, the application there restarts, and then the address moves.
- When the failed server comes back, it is stopped automatically so that two servers never write at the same time. We then reconnect it as the new standby.
All of this runs without manual intervention and takes a few minutes. Your shops don't need to do anything: they keep talking to the same address.
Updates without downtime
We roll out new versions of configento.app to your instance one server at a time: first the standby, then the active one. So one server is always serving. Your instance gets the same new features as the shared platform – shortly after they have run successfully there.
Monitoring you can prove
- External measurement: the availability of your instance is measured continuously from outside. This makes availability verifiable, as a service level agreement requires.
- Central logs and error reports: logs from both servers end up in one central place, and errors are reported to us immediately – even if a server has just been replaced.
- Announced maintenance: we announce planned maintenance windows specifically to the customers they affect.
What you need to do in your shop
Almost nothing. The plugins for Magento, Shopware and PrestaShop can connect to an instance of your own. Shopware and PrestaShop pick up your instance's addresses automatically when you connect them to configento.app; in Magento you enter them once in the module configuration. For the HTML snippet on websites, you set two attributes to your own addresses.
Your existing components move into the instance – with the same IDs. Links in your shop stay valid.
Who it pays off for
The Enterprise license is meant for companies where the configurator is a central part of sales: many orders through the configurator, several shops, connected ERP systems or customers who expect availability commitments themselves.
Frequently asked questions
What availability is guaranteed? The Enterprise license includes a service level agreement with 99.0 % availability, fixed maintenance windows and fixed response times for incidents. The details are in the service level agreement.
What does it cost? The Enterprise license is available from €990 per month (plus VAT), including a personal contact and phone support. More under pricing.
Where is my data stored? In two data centres in Germany. The database, images and backups do not leave Germany.
Do I have to rebuild my configurator? No. We transfer your components, versions, images and settings into the instance with the same IDs. Afterwards you work as usual, just under your own address.
Is this also available for Shopify? The Shopify app runs on the shared platform. Instances of your own are available for Magento, Shopware, PrestaShop and the HTML snippet.
Want to know whether an instance of your own is right for you? Everything about the Enterprise license – or talk to us directly via contact.