At Halon, every feature we build is driven by a commitment to solving real customer challenges with precision and innovation. Delivery Orchestrator is the latest step in this journey, created to intelligently manage traffic distribution across instances in a way that adapts seamlessly to real-time conditions.
Our journey with Delivery Orchestrator began a few years back when one of our clients, a high-volume email sender, faced a common but persistent problem. In a clustered setup with multiple instances, delivering to destinations with strict connection limits posed a unique challenge. Traditional rate limits and concurrency settings often caused certain servers to become overloaded while others remained underutilized. This imbalance created inefficiencies in managing email traffic across the cluster. Initially, we implemented a distribution method by dividing email delivery limits equally across instances, which seamlessly integrates with Kubernetes for dynamic recalculation as the number of instances are scaled up or down.
We recognized that static distribution is highly effective in many scenarios, providing a straightforward and reliable way to allocate resources across instances. However, depending on factors such as traffic distribution and complexity of traffic shaping demands, there are scenarios when the limits of a purely static approach become apparent.
For email operations dealing with variable loads and very strict destination limits, a more dynamic solution was needed—one that could adapt in real-time, respond to fluctuating traffic, and maximize resource efficiency. From this need, the concept of Delivery Orchestrator was born: a feature that goes beyond simple load balancing to orchestrate traffic intelligently, ensuring that every instance in the cluster contributes effectively under demanding conditions. Compared to static division, Delivery Orchestrator prioritizes instances with more messages to send, achieving faster throughput, avoiding bottlenecks and optimizing resource utilization.
Building Delivery Orchestrator
Creating Delivery Orchestrator required us to approach email traffic management in a new way. Unlike a traditional load balancer, Delivery Orchestrator needed to take multiple factors into account:
Our engineering team evaluated different architectures to find the right balance of simplicity, speed, and resilience. In the end, we found a solution that gave us the performance and low-latency responses needed to handle real-time adjustments across all instances in the cluster. Delivery Orchestrator offers a level of traffic management that’s both flexible and robust, enabling clients to handle surges and large delivery volumes with ease.
How Delivery Orchestrator improves email delivery
Efficient email delivery is the backbone of successful email infrastructure. Here’s how Delivery Orchestrator helps clients achieve that:
Continuing to listen, improve, and adapt
Delivery Orchestrator reflects Halon’s engineering philosophy: we don’t just check off a feature and move on. Every improvement, no matter how small, is part of a larger commitment to help our customers succeed. From the first iterations to the real-time orchestration we offer today, Delivery Orchestrator is a testament to Halon’s dedication to evolving alongside our customers’ needs to provide robust, scalable, and resilient email infrastructure that fits their needs.
Looking ahead, we’ll continue to refine Delivery Orchestrator, exploring new ways to make it even more responsive and powerful for large-scale email senders. And, as always, our clients’ feedback will be at the heart of every enhancement we make.