An Insider's Look at the Technology That Powers Shopify

Quick Summary

Watched this talk because I thought it was more software architecture related but it turned out to be a very general and high level overview on 4 areas of Shopify's technology. Lots of cool Silk Road. economical, and historical references though.

Open Internet

Payments

Joined W3C in 2016 as a founding member of the payments working group, to standardize payment actions on the internet for 3 years+.
- Principles:
  - "Do you have a wallet?"
  - "Can you make a payment?"
  - "Let's make it fast."

3D Models

Shopify is working with the Khronos Group (an open standards body) to advance 3D model formats for the internet.

Security & Privacy

A merchant's data belongs to the merchant.
"We have the tools to support you, but you have to use them".
The biggest threat to a merchant's data is compromised credentials, mainly from phishing emails.
New identity vault launched: https://accounts.shopfiy.com
- One account and one setting for everything you do on Shopify.
- Supports new Web Authentication API (WebAuthn, nice guide here).
  - Allows Shopify servers to interact with secure identity meechanisms on devices (TouchID, Windows Hello, etc.)
Additional support on data ownership and privacy through new webhooks and APIs
- Data request and deletion API.
- Greater app permission transparency.
Ranking and monitoring apps on Shopify platform to make sure that their partners are building applications that respect data on behalf of the merchant.
Processing more than 10 billion events everyday, which totals to 10 petabytes of data.
Network of 3000+ security engineers who have been paid out more than 1 million USD to find and report vulnerabilities (on test shops).
Increasing investment on metafields on Shopify platform.

Extensibility

Providing unique products and experience is a key product to make commerce exciting and enjoyable.
Guided by the philosophy of The Silk Road.
5 years ago Shopify API had lag between announcing APIs and features.
As of this talk, Shopify is powered by the same REST and GraphQL APIs used by clients. No lag between feature announcements and API announcements anymore.
New PoS is being built with apps as a core feature built into the experience.
APIs are features.
Comitting to building as many APIs they can to keep Shopify the most creative platform for commerce experiences.

Global Infrastructure

Scaled from 2 points of presence to 180 in over 80 countries in a single year. Decreasing latency for buyers by 30% - 50%.
Launching 4 new regions in next 18 months from this talk's date.
Requests reach around 5 million per minute.
Some merchants are selling more than 8000 orders a minute.
Speed matters more than scale for most merchants.
Two big performance wins:
- Upgrade to image delivery service by using WebP (30% smaller and faster).
- New Liquid renderer that's 7x faster.

PreviousSoftware Architecture NextBuilding Extensible Platforms

Last updated 5 years ago

Open Internet

Payments

Joined W3C in 2016 as a founding member of the payments working group, to standardize payment actions on the internet for 3 years+.

Principles:
- "Do you have a wallet?"
- "Can you make a payment?"
- "Let's make it fast."

3D Models

Shopify is working with the Khronos Group (an open standards body) to advance 3D model formats for the internet.

Security & Privacy

A merchant's data belongs to the merchant.

"We have the tools to support you, but you have to use them".

The biggest threat to a merchant's data is compromised credentials, mainly from phishing emails.

New identity vault launched: https://accounts.shopfiy.com

One account and one setting for everything you do on Shopify.
Supports new Web Authentication API (WebAuthn, nice guide here).
- Allows Shopify servers to interact with secure identity meechanisms on devices (TouchID, Windows Hello, etc.)

Additional support on data ownership and privacy through new webhooks and APIs

Data request and deletion API.
Greater app permission transparency.

Ranking and monitoring apps on Shopify platform to make sure that their partners are building applications that respect data on behalf of the merchant.

Processing more than 10 billion events everyday, which totals to 10 petabytes of data.

Network of 3000+ security engineers who have been paid out more than 1 million USD to find and report vulnerabilities (on test shops).

Increasing investment on metafields on Shopify platform.

Extensibility

Providing unique products and experience is a key product to make commerce exciting and enjoyable.

Guided by the philosophy of The Silk Road.

5 years ago Shopify API had lag between announcing APIs and features.

As of this talk, Shopify is powered by the same REST and GraphQL APIs used by clients. No lag between feature announcements and API announcements anymore.

New PoS is being built with apps as a core feature built into the experience.

APIs are features.

Comitting to building as many APIs they can to keep Shopify the most creative platform for commerce experiences.

Global Infrastructure

Scaled from 2 points of presence to 180 in over 80 countries in a single year. Decreasing latency for buyers by 30% - 50%.

Launching 4 new regions in next 18 months from this talk's date.

Requests reach around 5 million per minute.

Some merchants are selling more than 8000 orders a minute.

Speed matters more than scale for most merchants.

Two big performance wins:

Upgrade to image delivery service by using WebP (30% smaller and faster).
New Liquid renderer that's 7x faster.