hybrid cloud case study (interoute)
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TRANSCRIPT
“The AlwaysOn feature in Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Enterprise manages high availability and disaster
recovery needs for Caxton FX through a single solution.
The system is up all the time.”
Mark Faithfull, Chief Technology Officer, Caxton FX
Foreign exchange specialist Caxton FX wanted a secure database
platform for its trading system, combining real-time replication,
reporting services, and data warehouse capabilities. It chose
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise data management
software in a hybrid cloud configuration. It uses a cloud-based
data centre managed by Microsoft Gold Partner Interoute, with
replication to a second physical database at Caxton FX.
Business Needs Founded in 2001 and with an annual
turnover of £700 million, Caxton FX
specialises in foreign exchange and
international payments transactions, as
well as analysis and reports on foreign
currency markets. It deals in both large
and small transactions—from its prepaid
currency cards that offer fee-free travel
money to robust hedging strategies for
multimillion pound deals.
In a fast-moving business such as foreign
exchange, price and service have been the
guiding principles that have helped Caxton
FX—which is regulated by the United
Kingdom Financial Services Authority—
earn a reputation for excellence in
customer care. In this competitive industry,
technology is a key driver for both the
trading and analytical sides of the
business, which need support systems with
high levels of performance, availability,
and security.
Mark Faithfull, Chief Technology Officer,
Caxton FX, says: “We wanted to run all our
reports and foreign exchange transactions
on a single trading platform, which is up
around the clock. For that to work
effectively, we needed a database platform
for our replacement settlements and a
Microsoft SQL Server
Customer Solution Case Study
Currency Trading Database Hits Maximum
Uptime with Hybrid Cloud Solution
Customer: Caxton FX
Website: www.caxtonfx.com
Customer Size: 65
Country or Region: United Kingdom
Industry: Financial services
Partner: Interoute
Customer Profile
Caxton FX is a privately owned foreign
exchange and international payments
provider based in London in the United
Kingdom. It focuses on foreign exchange
deals, online currency transfers, and
prepaid currency cards.
Software and Services
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Enterprise
− Windows Server 2008 R2
For more information about other
Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Document published October 2012
trading system that combined real-time
replication, reporting services, and data
warehouse capabilities.”
To support its highly experienced foreign
exchange analysts, Caxton FX needed a
reliable platform through which analysts
could create their own self-service business
intelligence reports. They needed to use
real-time financial data while having the
authority to query the data to discover
business trends. Faithfull says: “Our aim was
to build a solid platform for the future of
the organisation.”
Solution Caxton FX decided to take advice from
Microsoft Gold Partner Interoute—formerly
Quantix, which is now part of Interoute, the
owner of Europe’s largest cloud services
platform.
Interoute proposed using Microsoft SQL
Server 2012 Enterprise with Windows Server
2008 R2 Service Pack 2 to support both the
trading side of the business and the
analysts. It includes features that will help
Caxton FX scale and maintain performance
as its business continues to grow and
financial markets globalise. SQL Server 2012
runs on standard commodity hardware,
providing a low total cost of ownership, and
has the capacity to capture and process an
increasing number of complex trades.
Julian Boneham, Sales Director, Interoute,
says: “We proposed a hybrid solution,
running the trading platform in the private
cloud at the Interoute data centre. This
involved real-time replication to a second
database hosted within the Caxton FX
internal cloud infrastructure, which is part of
a data warehouse and real-time reporting
service. The AlwaysOn feature in Microsoft
SQL Server 2012 Enterprise manages high
availability and disaster recovery needs for
Caxton FX through a single solution. The
system is up all the time.”
In addition, Interoute is designing the new
infrastructure to ensure that Caxton FX can
deliver the highest levels of security for its
currency trading and prepaid currency
card clients.
Benefits Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is providing
Caxton FX with a reliable, cost-effective,
low-maintenance database framework,
supporting both process-intensive trades
as well as self-service reports for analysts,
without experiencing any dip in
performance. With reduced licensing,
hardware and administration costs, Caxton
FX is building a strong business for the
future.
Hybrid configuration extends life
cycle of IT assets. Caxton FX is
benefiting from the additional security
of running the trading platform in the
private cloud at the Interoute data
centre, with real-time replication to a
second database hosted within the
Caxton FX internal cloud infrastructure.
As a result, it has avoided the costs
associated with a major infrastructure
project, while extending the life cycle of
the IT systems already in place.
Licensing model cuts total cost of
ownership. Caxton FX has a Microsoft
Services Enterprise Agreement for low-
cost volume licensing of software, which
also includes the Licence Mobility
feature of Software Assurance. Faithfull
says: “We wanted to take advantage of
the new era of cloud computing, while
continuing to extract value from our
existing IT assets. Licence Mobility helps
us extend the value of our server
application licences by deploying them
on-premises or in the cloud.”
Real-time replication keeps analytics
relevant. The real-time replication
feature of SQL Server 2012 means
Caxton FX can run complex queries and
reports on the local reporting instance
of the database. It is always up to date
and operates without compromising the
online transaction processing
performance of the trading platform.
Cloud-based service delivers simpler
systems management. Running the
trading platform in the private cloud at
the Interoute data centre with
replication to Caxton FX has dramatically
improved the resilience of the solution.
In addition, there is no increase in IT
costs compared to the previous
architecture.