Introducing Kite Backup: A WhatsApp-based emergency mode

Investment and trading platforms are extremely complex systems. From interfacing with exchange systems via leased lines to numerous systems running on public cloud and physical data centres spread across regions, the real-time complexity and risks are massive. A technical issue anywhere in this chain can cascade and cause disruptions. To mitigate such possibilities, we have put in years of effort, and continue to do so, in architecting robust systems to prevent issues from spreading globally. Amongst many measures, one such architecture we employ is “sharding” the OMS (Order Management System) across multiple physically independent datacentres.

Apart from various technical and operational failover plans and resilience that brokers themselves build, SEBI has specific frameworks ensuring that large brokers have multiple redundancies in case of disaster scenarios tied to stringent audit and monitoring. Indian capital markets are perhaps the strictest in the world in that sense.

In addition to all the existing technical and operational measures for system resilience, we are introducing a new mode designed specifically for emergency scenarios that allows clients to cancel open orders and exit any open positions via WhatsApp at no additional cost. It has been designed and developed carefully to act with a whole new level of redundancy, fully independent of Kite’s (web and mobile) software systems and hardware infrastructure. It is also designed to be independent of even our primary hosting and infrastructure providers (Amazon AWS Cloud, and Cloudflare, which protects all client transactions over the internet).

In case of a disaster scenario, which we hope never happens, and Kite web and mobile both become inaccessible during market hours, this backup mode over WhatsApp will allow you to exit your open orders and positions.

• Add this number to your phone’s contact book. +91-9964452020
• Send a “hi” message on WhatsApp to this number to initiate the backup flow. It typically takes several seconds to receive a flow.

How the infrastructures differ

Kite’s infrastructure

When you place an order on Kite web or mobile app, the request from your app (web and mobile) reaches Kite systems (hosted on AWS cloud) from your device over the internet, through Cloudflare, which offers DDoS protection and security screening. The Kite system internally processes the orders and sends them to our OMS in physical data centres that are connected to exchanges via leased lines.

Even within Amazon AWS, our systems are distributed over multiple “availability zones” for redundancy and high availability.

However, what if there’s an issue in our systems, the AWS infrastructure itself, or Cloudflare, that affects order placement and position management intraday?

Kite Backup over WhatsApp

Kite’s WhatsApp-based backup system uses WhatsApp’s Flow user interface, not the conventional back-and-forth messaging flow.

• It is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure.
• It does not use Amazon AWS services or Cloudflare.
• It has no dependency on Kite web and mobile systems. It connects to the various OMS installations (silos) across datacenters directly.
• It uses WhatsApp as the primary interface (Meta’s independent infrastructure).
• It is a fully parallel and independent system.

Why not set up a parallel version of Kite apps?

• There are already multiple parallel redundant systems beneath the Kite web and Kite mobile app UIs. They are resilient to partial failures.
• These are complex systems with numerous dependencies. It’s not ideal to have such complexities in a backup system designed specifically for emergencies.
• Any potential technical issues in the primary system’s codebase can also arise in the parallel backup system.
• Exposing yet another public platform, ‘kite-backup.zerodha.com’, for instance, again requires a protection mechanism like CloudFlare, which defies the purpose of the backup system.

Why WhatsApp?

• It is widely used and accepted. You simply add Zerodha Kite Backup’s phone number to the contact book, and there is no need to remember any other platform endpoints.
• It uses Meta’s infrastructure, which is separate from the other big providers, such as Amazon AWS.
• WhatsApp’s “Flow” user interface system is ideal for basic, limited operations such as selecting and exiting orders and positions.
• No Kite endpoints have to be publicly exposed over the internet (such as kite.zerodha.com).

What about users who do not have WhatsApp?

Our primary platforms, Kite web and mobile, have multiple layers of redundancies built within them that are available to every customer automatically. Call and trade is another backup mechanism available to everyone. The WhatsApp-based backup system is an additional offering for customers who use WhatsApp.

Limitations

The Kite Backup system over WhatsApp is designed to be a last resort in case all primary trading platforms become unavailable. It is NOT designed to be a trading or investment platform.

• The WhatsApp Flow offers only a rudimentary interface that permits very few interactions.
• You can view holdings, margins, open orders and positions.
• Open orders and positions can be squared off. New orders or any other advanced features are not available.
• The backup system offers redundancy over Kite’s trading systems and infrastructure, such as Amazon AWS and Cloudflare, which Kite depends on. However, it does not offer redundancy over the core OMS (Order Management Systems) located in physical data centres. OMS systems have different redundancy measures.

Using Kite Backup

Complete these four steps:

1. Save the contact number: +91 99644 52020
2. Send a WhatsApp message: Open WhatsApp and send “Hi” to this number
3. Provide authentication: Enter your Zerodha user ID and PAN when prompted
4. Complete verification: Enter the SMS OTP you received

Using Kite Backup

Once logged in, you will see four options:

1. Open positions: View and square off open positions
2. Open orders: Cancel pending orders
3. Holdings: View your Kite holdings
4. Margins: Check available funds and margin requirements

Kite Backup runs continuously, and can be accessed anytime to square off orders and positions.

If you have questions about Kite Backup, please post them in the comments below.