Financial services

Xenomorph partners with Microsoft on HPC

10 October 2008

There is increasing demand among financial firms for higher levels of performance

Microsoft Windows High Performance Computing (HPC) Server 2008 looks set to help financial firms scale new heights. Launched in September at the 2008 High Performance on Wall Street conference, the solution has already garnered significant attention across the industry.

The technology is a welcome arrival in a challenging economic climate where trading automation, expanding data volumes and increasing regulatory demands can make ensuring the necessary levels of performance and functionality seem a tall order for financial firms.

“Companies have to be more efficient than ever with IT resources, but they need to maintain their position in a competitive market place,” explained Bill Laing, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Server and Solutions division, at the launch. “They require HPC solutions that deploy quickly, integrate in a heterogeneous environment and scale from workstation to cluster.”

Indeed, industry research points to rapidly increasing demand for the technology. “IDC research shows that high-performance computing has been one of the highest-growth IT markets over the past five years,” said Earl Joseph, HPC programme vice president at IDC. “Microsoft has made significant advancements in its products targeted for the HPC market, especially with the launch of Windows HPC Server 2008.”

Close to 100 companies in various industries, including Lloyds TSB Bank, participated in early evaluation and feedback programmes during the development of the server, while Morgan Stanley worked closely with Microsoft on its development.

“At Morgan Stanley, we create and develop models and systems designed to enhance our securities and investment banking businesses,” said Jay Dweck, global head of strategies and technology for the Institutional Securities Group at Morgan Stanley. “We are closely evaluating Microsoft’s Windows HPC Server 2008 to provide us with the ability to maintain our competitive edge.”

Xenomorph steps up
Hot on the heels of the release, real-time analytics and data management solutions specialist Xenomorph announced a strategic partnership that will see the technology integrated with the company’s TimeScape system. The news should be enthusiastically received by financial firms wanting to control costs while ensuring competitiveness.

“In today’s business environment, people are looking for computing systems that are scalable and responsive to their business needs,” said Michael Newberry, HPC product manager at Microsoft UK. “With partners like Xenomorph on board, Windows HPC Server 2008 is providing a responsive and cost-effective alternative to Unix and mainframes. Windows HPC Server 2008 enables businesses to meet the computing challenges and the data volumes of the 21st century.”

“Faced with an overload of data, technology specialists and business users need greater scalability from data management systems,” said Chris Budgen, chief technical architect at Xenomorph. “Data and its analysis are key pressure points and are growing as data volumes challenge traditional data analysis and instrument pricing. We need to move away from inflexible, monolithic data management architectures to a more dynamic and service-based approach.”

“In many ways, data has run ahead of the market’s ability to analyse it,” added Xenomorph CEO Brian Sentance. “Even with high-volume storage of real-time market data, when it comes to data analysis, many institutions find themselves asking the question, ‘we’ve got the data, now what?’ Parallelisation using HPC is the only way to keep on top of this and it helps to create competitive advantage in bringing new trading and risk management ideas to market.”

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