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Liberty EurAsia: Brokers join widespread City migration to NT
Story Filed: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 5:47 PM EST
FEB 29, 2000, M2 Communications - Liberty EurAsia, a leading brokerage house and
subsidiary of Liberty Brokerage Investment Corp, has successfully managed the
migration of its London headquarters from Novell to Windows NT. Liberty EurAsia
recruited IT systems and services specialist Keltec Progress to oversee the
migration which was facilitated by the installation of a Compaq cluster network
server.
Clustering, once seen as an expensive option, is now being adopted by a higher
proportion of companies, particularly to support mission-critical applications.
The initial cost of installing a clustered network is offset by lower
maintenance costs and avoidance of downtime, making it a better value option in
the long run. Just five minutes of downtime could cost Liberty EurAsia hundreds
of thousands of pounds.
Gareth D`Cruze, the Windows NT systems administrator for Liberty EurAsia
commented:
"We were looking for total transparency during the process of migration. We
intended that the move would be so seamless that our 290 staff wouldn`t even
realise that we had moved systems. The other paramount issue was that we needed
100% up-time since even five minutes outage would be catastrophic for us. Keltec
Progress has provided us with both of these."
Chris Hewertson, front office systems manager at Liberty EurAsia added: "The
decision to migrate from Novell to NT was made partly in order to be compatible
with clients and suppliers, the majority of whom are now using NT. We are moving
towards Windows NT as a corporation and we have greater in-house expertise in NT
than in Novell. It`s quite rare for us to use an outside company for this kind
of project but we were very pleased with the support and advice offered by
Keltec Progress."
"Because of the kind of environment that we are working in, Keltec Progress had
to conduct the majority of the installation during out of office hours so that
our traders could continue trading. Its flexibility in doing this was an added
bonus to us. Keltec Progress provided us with an onsite project manager, who
recommended the hardware, set up the basic structure for the system and assisted
in building it. This took the load off us and allowed us to concentrate on other
aspects of the migration."
The financial sector is increasingly driven by sophisticated technology and the
key players are investing heavily in the best computerised information and
trading systems to maintain competitive advantage. Put simply, their ability to
do business relies on the success or failure of such technology. Liberty EurAsia
supplies clients with proprietary screen-based systems which enable them to
obtain timely, accurate information and to execute trades at low cost.
Liberty`s in-house products include Liberty Trading System (LTS) and Liberty
Information Online Network (LION). LTS is a comprehensive, on-line, front-office
system that helps fixed income traders manage and automate many routine
activities. LTS` main features include pricing of securities, position tracking,
profit and loss calculations, risk management, analytics, and reports. The LTS
system allows multiple users to share data and screens across the trading desk.
Liberty Information Online Network (LION) is a digital computer network that
allows The Liberty Group brokers to distribute pricing and trading information
to clients and to track market activity more efficiently.
Keltec Progress reconfigured Liberty`s bespoke applications as part of the
migration, using the cluster server as a gateway to the legacy systems.
Gareth D`Cruze commented:
"Our industry-specific applications differ from more routine applications and
therefore the solution had to be moulded around the software. The migration has
gone extremely smoothly and will enhance information management throughout the
company." |
