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Case Study: Achieving Zero Downtime and Accelerating Releases by 50% with a Multi-Cluster ForgeRock Deployment

  • Writer: Midships
    Midships
  • Feb 17, 2025
  • 3 min read


Introduction


A leading Singaporean financial institution—among the nation’s top banks—sought to reinforce its high-availability capabilities to satisfy both growing business demands and heightened regulatory requirements set by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Historically relying on a single-cluster #PingAIS setup, the bank encountered limitations in meeting the zero-downtime standard mandated by regulators. Recognizing that any system interruption could jeopardize compliance and business continuity, the bank engaged #Midships to develop a robust multi-cluster solution.


The Challenges

 

  1. Zero Downtime Mandate Beyond strategic business goals, the bank was obliged to eliminate service outages to comply with MAS’s rigorous standards for financial institutions, which emphasize reliability, security, and uninterrupted access to banking services.

  2. High-Availability Gaps Operating on a single cluster left the bank susceptible to both planned and unplanned downtime. This posed significant risk for customers, particularly as the bank continued to expand its footprint in the region.

  3. Complex Upgrade and Maintenance Cycles Conducting infrastructure and application refreshes in a live environment risked impacting thousands of active users—a scenario that would trigger regulatory red flags if not managed with precision.

  4. Regulatory Compliance Pressures As the bank grew, so did its responsibilities to adhere to evolving rules and guidelines from MAS. Meeting higher standards demanded an infrastructure capable of delivering continuous service, even amid routine system changes or unforeseen disruptions.

 

The Solution


Midships partnered with the bank to architect a multi-cluster Active–Passive configuration in ForgeRock, ensuring resilience, streamlined upgrades, and adherence to MAS’s zero-downtime mandate. The key elements included: Multi-Cluster Migration By transitioning from a single cluster to an Active–Passive model, Midships enabled automatic failover capabilities. In the event of a primary site issue, the secondary site would assume operations without service interruptions, directly addressing MAS’s stringent continuity requirements.

  1. Zero Downtime Strategy Leveraging real-time monitoring and proactive incident detection, Midships built an infrastructure that could react instantly to any emerging issues. If a cluster faced potential downtime, traffic was diverted seamlessly—leaving end users and regulators confident in service availability.

  2. Seamless Upgrades Using phased rollouts, the bank staged infrastructure and application updates on the passive cluster first, testing with beta traffic. Successful validation allowed a smooth switchover, preventing any noticeable downtime for active users.

  3. Ongoing Compliance Support Midships not only deployed the multi-cluster design but continued to provide performance monitoring and health checks, ensuring the bank maintained compliance with MAS guidelines. Any anomalies were rapidly addressed to preserve continuous operations and regulatory adherence.

 

The Results

 

  1. Zero Downtime Compliance The new Active–Passive setup fully aligned with MAS’s mandates for service continuity.

  2. 50% Faster Path to Production By allowing upgrades and new feature testing on the passive cluster, the bank cut release cycles in half. This acceleration ensured that services could evolve rapidly without compromising user experience or regulator expectations.

  3. Improved Regulatory Confidence MAS, observing the bank’s seamless multi-cluster deployment and reliable failover mechanisms, gained increased trust in the institution’s operational resilience. This confidence also paves the way for smoother audits and approvals in the future.

  4. Strengthened Resilience Automated failover proved invaluable, with the infrastructure now equipped to handle unplanned disruptions. The dual-cluster approach eliminated single points of failure, bolstering both customer trust and organizational risk management.

  5. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction Clients enjoyed uninterrupted access to digital banking services—even during system updates—reducing downtime anxiety and enhancing the overall user experience.

 

Conclusion


By partnering with Midships to adopt a multi-cluster Active–Passive ForgeRock deployment, this Singapore-based financial institution successfully adhered to MAS’s zero-downtime requirement and cut feature-release times by 50%. This robust, compliant infrastructure now provides peace of mind to both regulators and customers, demonstrating the institution’s commitment to consistent uptime and seamless innovation.


For more information on how Midships can optimize your identity platform to meet evolving regulatory standards, contact us at sales@midships.io.

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