Infrastructure that grows with you, not behind you
Afosto is built on cloud-native principles: every component scales automatically during peaks, features ship weekly and your data lives in European data centers. No maintenance windows, no capacity planning, no manual work.
Infrastructure in numbers
Built for retailers who cannot afford to go offline
EU
Data centers in the EU, all your data stays within Europe, GDPR compliant
Measurement interval per component, automatic scale-up as soon as the load rises
Weekly
New features shipped via microservices, without downtime or release freeze
Planned maintenance windows, updates never touch your point of sale, webshop or stock
What does cloud-native mean in practice for a retailer?
A cloud-native platform is not the same as 'running in the cloud'. It means the software is designed from the inside out to make use of the cloud: strict isolation between components, open standards and independent scalability per component.
For a retailer this translates into three concrete benefits:
- No planned downtime for updates or capacity expansions.
- Automatic scalability per module. If your checkout is under peak load, only the checkout scales up, not the whole system.
- Faster innovation. New features are developed as separate building blocks and rolled out without touching existing processes.
The downside of traditional monolithic platforms is exactly this: one large codebase means that an update to the inventory module can also affect the point of sale. At Afosto that is structurally impossible.
How does automatic scaling work at Afosto?
Every 15 seconds Afosto measures the load of each individual system component. If the load exceeds a threshold, that specific component scales up automatically, without human intervention and without affecting other components.
This matters during:
- Black Friday. Order volumes can multiply tenfold within minutes.
- The holiday and Christmas period. Sustained higher visitor and transaction pressure.
- Campaigns and flash sales. Unexpected peaks after an ad or a social post.
A retailer with 10 locations and a webshop does not have to file a ticket about this. The system handles it itself.
What is redundancy and why is your data in multiple EU data centers?
Redundancy means that critical systems are deployed multiple times, so that the failure of one component does not lead to total unavailability.
Afosto runs on enterprise cloud infrastructure spread across multiple zones within European data centers. If one zone goes down, another zone takes over automatically. On top of that infrastructure redundancy, the software is also deployed redundantly: at least one instance of every service runs as an active backup.
The practical result: an outage in one data center or zone does not affect your webshop, point of sale or inventory management, and your data does not leave the EU.
Where is my data stored and why does that matter?
All your data is stored in data centers within the European Union. For a Dutch or Belgian retailer this means: your customer and order data falls fully under the GDPR and does not leave the EU. Now that European legislation puts increasing weight on data sovereignty, EU hosting is no longer a side note but a compliance advantage. You do not have to make a separate assessment about where your data lands: that is handled properly by default.
How does development speed translate into lower costs for the retailer?
Afosto works with an API-first, microservices architecture. New functionality is broken down into well-defined building blocks with fast, documented APIs. That approach has two direct consequences:
- Shorter time to market. Features are rolled out weekly instead of quarterly.
- Lower integration costs. A developer builds a connection with an ERP, WMS or marketplace tool on a stable, consistent API, not on custom solutions that break with every update.
For retailers who use systems alongside Afosto, such as an accounting package or a fulfilment partner, this means integrations are built to last.
A technical foundation, translated into retail benefits
Automatic scale-up per component
The load is measured every 15 seconds. Peak pressure on checkout, search or stock? The relevant component scales up instantly, while the rest stays untouched.
EU data centers, GDPR compliant
Your data lives in European data centers on enterprise cloud infrastructure, spread across multiple zones. If one zone goes down, another takes over, and your data never leaves the EU.
Microservices architecture
Every system component, from order management to point of sale, is a standalone service. Updates to one module do not affect other modules. No release freeze, no combined risks.
API-first through and through
Every function in Afosto is accessible through a documented, stable GraphQL API, with REST for specific endpoints such as the public product catalog. Connections with ERP, WMS, marketplaces or a custom frontend are therefore repeatable and easy to maintain.
Weekly feature releases
Thanks to the microservices setup, new features are rolled out weekly. No quarterly cycles, no waiting on a monolithic release window.
Scalability without capacity planning
You do not have to reserve servers for Black Friday. Afosto's infrastructure handles that automatically, so you focus on campaigns, not on IT capacity.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Afosto's infrastructure
Technical questions retailers ask before switching to a cloud-native platform.
Does Afosto stay available during Black Friday and other peak moments?
Yes. Afosto scales up automatically during peaks, without human intervention. Every 15 seconds the system load is measured per component. If a component exceeds its threshold, that specific component scales up instantly. Historically, Black Friday and the December holidays are the heaviest moments for retailers on the platform, and the system is structurally designed for this.
What happens if one of Afosto's data centers goes down?
Afosto runs on enterprise cloud infrastructure spread across multiple zones within European data centers. If one zone becomes unreachable, another takes over automatically. In addition, at least one instance of every software service runs as an active backup. An outage in one data center or zone is therefore no reason for downtime on your side.
Where is my data stored and is it kept in the EU?
Yes. All your data is stored in data centers within the European Union. Your customer and order data therefore falls fully under the GDPR and does not leave the EU. For retailers that is increasingly important: European legislation puts more emphasis on data sovereignty, and with Afosto you do not have to arrange anything separately for it, since EU hosting is the default.
How often are new features rolled out and does that impact my running system?
New features are rolled out weekly. Because Afosto works with a microservices architecture, where each component is a standalone service, an update to one module has no impact on other components. No platform-wide release freeze is needed. Your point of sale, webshop and inventory management keep running uninterrupted during updates.
Can I connect my own systems to Afosto?
Yes. Afosto is built API-first: every function is accessible through a documented, stable GraphQL API, alongside REST endpoints for specific purposes such as the public product catalog. Connections with ERP systems, WMS software, marketplaces (such as bol.com or Amazon) or your own frontend are therefore repeatable and easy to maintain. Because the APIs are stable and do not change per release, integrations keep working longer without maintenance.
For which retailers is Afosto's infrastructure most relevant?
Afosto is designed for retailers in the Netherlands and Belgium with 1 to 50 locations that sell both online and offline. Retailers who process high transaction volumes during seasonal peaks in particular, and who currently depend on manual server scaling or a platform that regularly slows down, benefit directly from the automatic scalability and redundant setup.
What is the difference between cloud-native and simply 'running in the cloud'?
A platform that 'runs in the cloud' is often a traditional monolithic application that has been moved to a cloud server. Cloud-native means that the software is designed from the ground up to make use of cloud principles: strict isolation between components, automatic scalability per component and independent deployments. The practical difference: with a monolith, an update to one module affects the whole system. With Afosto's cloud-native setup, it does not.
Scalable infrastructure does not have to be an IT project
Afosto's cloud-native platform scales automatically with your growth, during peak moments, when you add new locations and when you expand to new sales channels. Create a free account and discover what that means for your operation.