Communications and Technology Industry Research

Switch and Data has announced that it is providing free e-distribution on demand of an independent research report by the TABB Group titled, ‘Financial Services Data Centers: Power, Proximity and Profit’

The report analyzes and recommends optimum performance combinations of servers, power and proximity location of equipment that could yield significant profitable results for financial service providers that are ever alert to stay fractions of seconds ahead of competition.

“This report provides valuable information on the benefits that data centers provide for pre- and post-trade service providers and buy and sell side communities in the equity, options, futures and currency markets,” said John Panzica, Vice President of Financial Services Practice, Switch and Data (News - Alert).

The report says that financial market firms are still spending at the rate of $1.8 billion per year on servers, power and cooling solutions. It claims that even though super quick two way communication is a vital parameter, 82 percent of respondents surveyed claimed that even the smallest additional expenditure on power was the cause for maximum concern and seen as the number one reason for reducing profit margins.

It recommends that solutions with high power densities and unhindered connectivity delivered through a low latency network infrastructure are the best ones for financial companies to target.

“Trading has changed dramatically since the time of the ticker tape. We now live in a world when a millisecond can cost or make millions and trading and information volumes are exploding,” said Panzica.

The report cautions that there is no single quick fix solution for any company, but advocates that the ideal solution matrix varies from company to company. As an illustration, it points out that an assets evaluation and derivates firm may focus primarily on power to accelerate the communication and calculation power of its servers and computers so that it instantly churns out mission critical permutations on costing and risk management.

One set of resources, TMCnet reported, that helps IT departments of any type of organization keep a tight scrutiny on power consumption for each port and each device are Advanced Monitored enclosure based Power Distribution Units.

The TABB report points out that a sell side broker in markets, however, would rather pay a premium for proximity colocation since its focus is on negligible time delays that negate thinned resources spread over multiple investments.

It reveals statistics, which help companies make “relative” decisions on infrastructural investments, such as it takes 500 microseconds for certain information to travel 100 miles over fiber optic cables and stresses that companies can strike a balance between power availability, per cabinet cost and closeness of location depending on their policy and priority decision making.

It also suggests that Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) may be a viable option since SaaS adds another dimension that significantly cuts down on IT and infrastructural costs, as reported earlier by TMCnet. It cautions companies to closely examine the security aspects of all solutions being considered so that there is no chance of any information breach.

Switch and Data’s Financial Services Practice (FSP), TMCnet reported, has been developed to address the “volume” and “low-latency” requirements of today’s electronic trading market and its 200 watts per square foot standard supports the order management, market data and matching engine scalability to support the current and future growth needs.

Switch and Data (FSP) sites, TMCnet reported, also house direct current (DC) power plants and offer the option of DC power that is considered an attractive option for companies who need high-equipment densities to house rich digital content.