SolaceSystems is one relatively new company specialising in
messaging middleware and content networking hardware. Solace
equipment is being used as the foundation of Barclays Capital's
new, enterprise-wide high-speed messaging platform.
The hardware from Solace works as an accelerator to speed up
message processing. Pat Payton, managing director and head of IBD,
sales, research and core services IT at Barclays Capital, says: "By
embedding the messaging middleware in hardware, Solace is allowing
us to better compete in the next decade with a fully flexible,
state-of-the-art infrastructure."
Why is hardware acceleration so important? According to Solace
Systems, if 10 traders are interested in IBM's share price, a
unique IBM quote will be sent separately to each trader. This
represents a fan-out of 10. Doing this in software is very slow.
Instead, SolaceSystems does all of its TCP processing in hardware,
using a massively parallel architecture, which it says is quick
enough to support the low-latency, high-volume environments
required on trading desks.
Maureen Fleming, program director, business process management
and middleware at IDC, says: "Messaging appliances promise to
improve both the cost-performance ratio and manageability of
messaging and are an important next step in the evolution of this
mission critical technology."
Tervela is another
company making a purpose-built, hardware-accelerated messaging
device, with its TMX Message Switch.
Tervela has partnered with Arista Networks, a provider of
low-latency, 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) and cloud networking
services to offer high-speed messaging as a cloud-based
service.
The pair provide a unified communications platform which they
claim is not only capable of responding to the need for
high-performance messaging in modern financial applications, but
also facilitates a set of infrastructure-based services to address
the unique challenges of the financial services sector.
SolaceSystems and
Tervla have now been joined by IBM and Tibco. In November 2008 IBM
unveiled its hardware product,
WebSphere DataPower Low Latency Appliance XM70. IBM says the
XM70 delivers predictive, low-latency messaging and routing for
data distribution using a purpose-built, hardware appliance.
According to IBM, the appliance provides network-based, low-latency
multicast and unicast messaging, protocol bridging, and dynamic
content-based routing in a security-enhanced appliance to help
address problems such as unpredictable performance, scaling issues
required to meet increasing message and feed volumes, and overall
management complexity.
The messaging acceleration technology has begun to catch the
attention of major IT suppliers. This month,
Tibco
has introduced its messaging middeware appliance, which provides
messaging that runs within dedicated hardware chips (ASIC and
FPGA), without the need for the microprocessor traditionally used
in appliance hardware.
Tibco has taken the technology from SolaceSystems to build its
own Messaging Appliance P-7500. Tibco says the appliance tackles
messaging latency problems by implementing Tibco messaging in
hardware, which it claims lowers latency, improves predictability
and increases throughput. Tibco says the appliance offers a
ten-times increase in messaging volume compared to current
software-only approaches and reduces latency by 50%. Tom Laffey,
executive vice-president, products and technology at Tibco, says:
"Data-intensive industries - financial services,
telecommunications, manufacturing, government and major online
commerce companies - need lower latency and increased throughput at
lower costs."
Unfortunately for Tibco, the economic downturn has meant such
high-speed messaging appliances are less of a priority for
financial institutes. Tibco is now looking at offering the product
to telcos, where high-speed, low-latency messaging can be deployed
to provide real-time services such as finding a nearby restaurant,
or at passport control, where an immigration officer needs to check
a passenger quickly.
As more applications are built, the industry has recognised that
different messaging systems will need to exchange messages
efficiently. The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol
(AMQP)
has been set up to work with suppliers of middeware software and
appliances to make them interoperable.
Messaging acceration hardware is very much at an early stage of
deployment. While the financial sector is an obvious user of
high-speed, low-latency messaging middleware appliances,
telecommunications is the other big beneficiary.