Datacentres for hosting financial trading
applications in London could be scaled back and
developed using a
modular datacentre design to overcome space and
power limitations,
an expert in sourcing datacentre locations has said.
Stephen Taylor, associate director at real estate firm CB
Richard Ellis, which offers datacentre valuation and leasing
services, said,
"
Supply in Docklands has dried up. It is no longer appropriate
to host 100,000-square-foot datacentres there."
Because of financial regulations, City banks must locate
datacentres a minimum of 15km from their London head office.
However, due to the need for real-time processing, datacentres
could lose trades if they are too far away, Taylor said. This is
due to the delay, or latency, in replicating transactions across a
network over a long distance in real time.
Taylor said a lack of suitable sites for large server rooms
meant that City banks would need to downsize their datacentres.
He said banks would need to split their requirements between IT
platforms that need real-time replication, such as front-office
trading platforms, and the more process-driven elements that could
be housed further afield.
Rakesh Kumar, research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner,
said, "It makes a lot of sense to split datacentres." However, he
added that this went against established best practices.
The 15km restriction governing the location of datacentres for
financial institutions is a stipulation of the
Sarbanes-Oxley
regulations, said Ian Mitchell, an analyst at stockbroker Charles
Stanley.
He said the challenge for banks was to strike a balance between
regulatory requirements and the need to compete in the financial
markets, where speed of trade is paramount.
Sun's modular datacentre offers speedy installation
>>
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