A central aim of the IT overhaul at the London Stock
Exchange has been to cut costs by 20% while developing a system
that offered scalability, availability, agility and
security.
To help with the cost reductions, the LSE has replaced its
Hewlett-Packard Tandem NonStop servers with HP Proliant x64 (hybrid
32/64-bit) servers.
Robin Paine, chief technology officer, said, "It is much easier,
faster and cheaper to get linear levels of scalability [with
commodity PC servers]. The previous NonStop hardware was time
consuming and expensive to scale."
There is a direct correlation between the performance of the IT
systems and the level of trading on the Exchange. Improvements in
system performance benefits the volume of trading. Any delays in
the Exchange's ability to execute trades can quickly reduce profit,
Gavin Little-Gill, director at Tower Group said.
To help, the IT team and senior managers receive a daily text
message giving them information on sustained peak trading.
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