The London Stock Exchange is preparing to provide early
access to its new core trading system as the culmination of a
four-year technology refresh programme.
Later this summer all directly connected stock exchange clients,
such as investment banks, will be able to connect to the system to
ensure it is compatible with their own systems and processes, said
Robin Paine, chief technology officer at the exchange.
The London Stock Exchange completed development of the core
trading system, based on HP Proliant servers and a Microsoft .net
infrastructure with a SQL Server 2000 relational database, in
March.
As part of its technology overhaul the stock exchange developed
its own “iBus” middleware using Micro¬soft’s C# programming
language and the .net Framework, rather than buying off-the-shelf
middleware.
“iBus provides real-time, high-speed low-latency middleware,”
Paine said, which was unavailable in off-the-shelf products.
In another part of the technology refresh programme, last month
the London Stock Exchange simplified its broadcast data service by
reducing the number of data feeds it offers from 70 to 20 channels.
Paine said this simplified the administration required by
investment banks.
The exchange is also looking at enhancing its Infolect
“tickertape” information delivery platform by providing a
high-speed dedicated network for data-intensive clients, Paine
said.