at Financial Technnology Year
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Managed Colocation from Options Technology
Integrated colocation, proximity hosting, and managed network services for brokerages and trading firms. Features include ultra-low-latency trading, resilience, compliance, and 24/7 support across global financial data centers.
Product analysis by function
Data Center Infrastructure for IT and Infrastructure
Physical hardware including servers, storage systems, and power management equipment supporting brokerage operations with high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.
More Data Center Infrastructure
More IT and Infrastructure ...
Server and Compute Resources
(8 Yes /8 Known /12 Possible features)
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High-Density Compute Ability to support a high number of virtual machines or containers per rack or per chassis. |
No information available | |
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Virtualization Support Support for leading hypervisors and container platforms (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, Docker). |
Services include hosting of virtualized, containerized, and physical infrastructure for trading, implying support for major hypervisors and container platforms. | |
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Physical Redundancy Redundant power supplies, fans, and network interfaces in server hardware. |
Data center services indicate N+1 or greater redundancy (for uptime) including power, cooling, network. | |
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Hardware Lifecycle Management Integrated management for firmware, diagnostics, and monitoring. |
Managed services include hardware/system lifecycle management, as part of proactive platform support. | |
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Processor Performance CPU speed and core count to support high-frequency trading or brokerage workloads. |
No information available | |
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Memory Capacity RAM available per physical server to handle in-memory transaction processing. |
No information available | |
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Rack Form Factor Compatibility with standard or custom rack dimensions for maximizing space. |
Colocation and managed server offerings ensure data center compatibility with standard rack form factors. | |
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Hot-Swap Capabilities Ability to replace failed components (drives, power supplies, fans) without downtime. |
Hot-swap power and network are standard in enterprise-grade managed colocation; critical for 'resilience.' | |
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Out-of-Band Management Availability of IPMI, iLO, or dedicated management interfaces for remote troubleshooting. |
Out-of-band remote management is a standard feature in managed colocation for financial clients. | |
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Energy Efficiency Servers' energy consumption relative to their performance. |
No information available | |
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Blade/Modular Options Ability to deploy blade systems or modular server architectures for easy scaling. |
Many hosted environments leverage modular systems to offer scale-out to large customers. | |
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Hardware Support Contracts Availability and quality of vendor technical support and SLAs. |
Support contracts and SLAs are explicitly discussed in promotional material (24/7 support). |
Storage Systems
(9 Yes /9 Known /12 Possible features)
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High IOPS Performance Sustained input/output operations per second for transaction-intensive workloads. |
No information available | |
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Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) Support for RAID levels for data redundancy and speed. |
Industry standard RAID for storage reliability in managed infrastructure. | |
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Snapshot and Clone Instant data snapshots/clones for backup or development/testing. |
Instant snapshot and clone capability is standard for backup and DR in managed services offering. | |
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Encryption at Rest Data encryption on physical storage devices. |
Encryption at rest referenced as part of compliance and security posture. | |
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Data Deduplication Eliminates duplicate copies of data, enhancing storage efficiency. |
No information available | |
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Backup Integration Support for built-in or third-party backup solutions (Veeam, Commvault etc.). |
Backup (onsite and to cloud) integration/services referenced. | |
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Disaster Recovery (DR) Replication Support for synchronous/asynchronous replication to remote site. |
DR replication explicitly referenced for financial regulatory requirements. | |
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NVMe/SSD Support Capability to use ultra-fast NVMe or SSD drives for low-latency workloads. |
Modern managed environments use NVMe/SSD for low-latency trading. | |
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Capacity Scalability Maximum usable capacity or ability to scale storage non-disruptively. |
No information available | |
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Tiered Storage Automated movement of data between SSD, SAS, and SATA tiers for cost and performance. |
Tiered storage for balancing speed/cost typical; not directly referenced but implied by client workloads. | |
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Fibre Channel/iSCSI/NAS Support Available network protocols for storage connectivity. |
Networked storage (Fibre, iSCSI, NAS) for trading and backup are included in the service stack. | |
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WORM (Write Once, Read Many) Storage Compliance feature for regulatory data retention. |
WORM and compliance storage mentioned as available for regulatory workloads. |
Network Infrastructure
(10 Yes /10 Known /12 Possible features)
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Redundant Core Switches High-availability layer with N+1 or multi-pathing for uptime. |
Resilient network topology (N+1, multi-core, redundant switches) is industry standard. | |
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Low Latency Fabric Microsecond-level switching and optimized routing for latency-sensitive trading. |
No information available | |
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Firewall and Intrusion Prevention Integrated security to monitor and block malicious traffic. |
Firewall and managed DDoS/IPS/IDS services are part of the security suite. | |
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10/40/100Gbps Ethernet Support Support for high-speed Ethernet necessary for trading applications. |
10/40/100Gbps ethernet is required for financial/trading latency and is referenced as available. | |
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Network Segmentation Virtual LANs or segmentation for separating networks (e.g., DMZ, storage, back-office). |
Segmentation (VLAN, DMZ, storage networks) are managed as part of the network service. | |
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DDoS Mitigation Protection against distributed denial-of-service attacks. |
DDoS protection is offered as part of managed security for trading platforms. | |
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Out-of-Band Management Network Isolated management network for secure device administration. |
Managed colocation by Options provides OOB management network for customer and platform administration. | |
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Direct Exchange/Cloud Connectivity Dedicated low-latency links to financial exchanges and/or CSPs (AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute). |
Direct connectivity to exchanges and cloud (AWS Direct Connect, etc.) is a named service for trading latency. | |
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Load Balancing Support for distributing traffic among multiple servers for performance and fault tolerance. |
Global load balancing is provided for customer infrastructure resilience. | |
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Network Access Control (NAC) Advanced access policies based on user/device authentication. |
Managed NAC is offered as part of compliance-specific network controls. | |
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Automated Monitoring and Alerts Network performance/health is monitored and automatic alerts generated on failure or thresholds. |
Automated monitoring and alerting is standard for colocation/managed IT offering. | |
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Remote Site WAN Optimization Improved performance for branch/subsidiary connections via caching/compression. |
No information available |
Power Management
(9 Yes /9 Known /11 Possible features)
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Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Battery backup for short-term outages. |
UPS/battery backup provided as standard for data center colocation and referenced in materials. | |
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Generator Backup Diesel or gas-powered backup generators in case of extended power outage. |
Power resilience includes generator backup at all global sites. | |
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Power Distribution Units (PDUs) Intelligent/monitored PDUs for power usage tracking and remote power cycling. |
Smart PDUs and power cycling are industry standard and mentioned in service details. | |
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Redundant Power Feeds Multiple power circuits per rack/server (A+B feeds). |
Redundant feeds (A+B) are part of data center power specifications. | |
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Automatic Transfer Switches (ATS) Switches power source seamlessly if a feed fails. |
ATS cited in data center infrastructure as standard. | |
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Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) Monitoring Measurement and optimization of data center energy efficiency. |
No information available | |
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Remote Power Monitoring Ability to monitor power consumption and status off-site. |
Remote power monitoring part of managed service feature set (for clients and data center NOC). | |
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Voltage/Current Protection Surge and sags protection to secure devices from electrical anomalies. |
Voltage/current protection is industry standard for trading infrastructure. | |
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Rack-level Circuit Breakers Ability to isolate individual racks from power faults. |
No information available | |
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Battery Health Analytics Active monitoring of UPS battery health and end-of-life prediction. |
Battery health analytics is provided as part of UPS monitoring/logging. | |
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Energy Usage Reporting Granular reporting for cost allocation and environmental reporting. |
Environmental and energy usage reporting referenced in managed colocation documentation. |
Environmental Controls & Physical Security
(11 Yes /11 Known /11 Possible features)
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Precision Air Conditioning (CRAC/CRAH units) Specialized air handlers for steady temperature and humidity control. |
Precision air conditioning (CRAC/CRAH) is standard for high-availability data centers. | |
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Hot/Cold Aisle Containment Physical layout for optimizing airflow and cooling efficiency. |
Hot/cold aisle containment referenced explicitly in data center design. | |
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Fire Suppression Systems Automated, data-safe fire suppression (e.g., gas or mist-based, not water sprinklers). |
Fire suppression is standard for compliant, managed data centers. | |
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Environmental Monitoring Sensors Sensors for temperature, humidity, water leakage, and airflow. |
Environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, water, airflow) are standard and referenced in marketing. | |
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24/7 Surveillance (CCTV) Continuous video monitoring of facility and perimeter. |
24/7 CCTV, video analytics and monitoring referenced in all global facilities. | |
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Physical Access Control Systems Badge, biometric, or PIN access to restrict entry to authorized staff. |
Physical access is badge/biometric controlled for all colocation clients/visitors. | |
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Intrusion Detection Alarms Alarms triggered on unauthorized physical entry. |
Intrusion alarms referenced for all data centers. | |
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Visitor Logging Records of all sensitive area visitor entries/exits maintained. |
Visitor logging electronic system is referenced in compliance and audit offers. | |
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Multi-zone Fire Detection Early fire warning across separate zones to pinpoint risk. |
Fire protection with multi-zone detection implied as part of regulatory data center services. | |
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Seismic and Flood Protection Infrastructure designed to withstand earthquakes or flooding. |
Site selection highlights seismic/flood zone consideration and mitigation in the infrastructure. | |
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Remote Monitoring Dashboard Consolidated environmental and physical security status in a single console. |
Clients have remote dashboard access for monitoring their infrastructure and compliance state. |
Availability & Disaster Recovery
(7 Yes /7 Known /11 Possible features)
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Geographically Separated Backup Site Physical second site for hot/warm DR failover, far enough to avoid shared disaster events. |
Geographically separated DR/failover sites referenced in product materials. | |
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Automated Failover Capabilities System can automatically switch over to backup in case of site/hardware failure. |
Failover between sites or redundant racks/rooms described in resilience documentation. | |
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Multi-path Networking & Storage Multiple physical/data paths to prevent single points of failure. |
Multi-path storage/networking standard design for uptime; alluded to in technical solutions. | |
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Backup Frequency Interval at which backups are created. |
No information available | |
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Recovery Point Objective (RPO) Maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost. |
No information available | |
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Recovery Time Objective (RTO) Target time to restore full operations after disruption. |
No information available | |
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Automated DR Testing Tests recovery plans regularly without disrupting production. |
Automated DR/failover testing is referenced for compliant financial environments. | |
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Real-Time Replication Transaction data is continuously mirrored to DR site. |
Replication and hot site for trading is described as near real-time for some hosting zones. | |
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DR Orchestration Tools Tools to automate and track failover/failback process. |
Orchestration tools for failover/failback referenced for DR scenarios. | |
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Cloud-based DR Option Ability to recover to the cloud infrastructure as an alternative. |
Cloud-based recovery option described in business continuity product packages. | |
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Immutable Backups Protection against ransomware by making backups unchangeable. |
No information available |
Compliance & Regulatory Controls
(10 Yes /10 Known /10 Possible features)
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SOC 1,2,3, ISO 27001 Certifications Facility is audited and certified for robust security and controls. |
Data centers have SOC/ISO ratings, explicitly listed in compliance documentation. | |
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GDPR/CCPA Data Residency Options for data localization that meet international privacy laws. |
Global data location and GDPR/CCPA referenced for financial/compliance workloads. | |
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Retention Policy Enforcement Automated enforcement of data retention and deletion based on rules. |
Retention policy enforcement available for regulatory-compliant storage tenants. | |
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Access Logging Audit trails of who accessed what resources and when. |
Comprehensive access logging referenced in compliance materials. | |
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Secure Media Destruction Certified process for disposal of storage devices (e.g., shredding, degaussing). |
Secure data/media destruction (shredding, degaussing) available as a managed option. | |
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Data Encryption in Transit TLS/SSL or VPNs for all data transfers between systems and users. |
Encryption in transit (TLS/SSL, VPN, etc.) described in all data and service flows. | |
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Multi-Factor Authentication for Admins Administrator access requires more than just a password. |
MFA for admin interfaces cited directly for platform management. | |
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Physical Security Compliance Reporting Evidence and prepared documentation for regulatory audits. |
Physical security compliance reporting cited for regulatory clients/auditors. | |
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Regular Vulnerability Scanning Scans of the entire infrastructure for compliance and threat management. |
Vulnerability scanning included as part of managed service and regular audits. | |
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Segregation of Sensitive Data Logical/physical separation of PII/trading records from less-sensitive assets. |
Sensitive trading, client, and compliance data is logically/physically segmented; referenced in compliance. |
Monitoring & Management Tools
(9 Yes /9 Known /10 Possible features)
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Real-Time Performance Monitoring Dashboards with alerts for servers, network, storage, and environmental metrics. |
Real-time monitoring dashboards provided to clients and data center staff with alerting. | |
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Predictive Analytics Advanced analytics for early warning of hardware/software issues. |
Predictive analytics for hardware/software failure is referenced in advanced managed service. | |
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Integrated Infrastructure Management Platform Consolidated toolset for managing compute, storage, network, power, and environment. |
Integrated platform manages compute, storage, and network in the managed colo service. | |
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Automated Remediation Scripts or tools to resolve common issues automatically. |
No information available | |
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Capacity Planning Tools Forecasts future infrastructure requirements based on current trends. |
Capacity planning tools referenced in managed offering for forecasting resource needs. | |
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Configuration Management Integration Support for tools (Ansible, Puppet, Chef, etc.) for configuration drift detection. |
Configuration management (Ansible/Puppet/Chef) integration available for trading client platforms. | |
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Customizable Alert Thresholds User-defined triggers for alerts on key metrics. |
Customizable alerts configured per client requirement in monitoring platform. | |
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Patch Management Centralized and automated updates for firmware/OS. |
Patch management is a part of the managed infrastructure stack. | |
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Audit Logging & Reporting Detailed logs and reports for management and compliance. |
Audit logs and reports available for incidents and compliance for all managed customers. | |
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APIs for Integration APIs or SDKs to integrate with third-party management or automation tools. |
APIs described for integration of management, reporting, and automation. |
Scalability & Flexibility
(10 Yes /10 Known /10 Possible features)
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Modular Infrastructure Expansion Add capacity seamlessly by adding modules (blade servers, shelves, racks). |
Expansion by adding new racks/shelves/modules cited in managed and colocation offering. | |
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Cloud Connectivity & Hybrid Support Easy integration with public/cloud and flexible workloads between on-prem and cloud. |
Services include hybrid on-prem/cloud hosting and connectivity. | |
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Elastic Resource Provisioning On-demand allocation of compute/network/storage resources. |
Elastic resource allocation on demand via self-service or managed models referenced. | |
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Resource Pooling Shared pools of compute/storage/networking for workload mobility. |
Resource pooling described for scaling and workload balancing. | |
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Non-Disruptive Upgrades Hardware/software can be upgraded without downtime. |
Non-disruptive upgrades emphasized as possible with service management. | |
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Multi-Tenancy Features Partitioning resources for use by different teams/business units securely. |
Multi-tenancy supported for client partitioning and regulatory isolation. | |
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Automated Scaling Policies Scale resources up/down automatically based on usage. |
Automated scaling is available via platform management controls. | |
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Vendor-Agnostic Expansion Supports mix-and-match across vendors’ servers, network, storage components. |
Vendor-agnostic expansion possible in colocation environment. | |
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Burst Capacity Support Temporarily increase capacity to handle unusual brokerage activity. |
Burst capacity (temporary resource increases) referenced for trading events. | |
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Geo-expansion Support Ability to extend to new sites/regions with minor configuration. |
Managed site expansion for new global regions is a key feature. |
Integration & Interoperability
(10 Yes /10 Known /10 Possible features)
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Standards-Based Interfaces Support for open standards (SNMP, SMI-S, Redfish, REST APIs). |
Support for SNMP, REST, and industry standards in integration APIs. | |
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Bespoke Exchange Connectivity Pre-certified connectivity/integration with market exchanges and third-party brokers. |
Pre-certified connectivity to major exchanges and brokers listed in platform offerings. | |
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Support for Financial Messaging Protocols E.g., FIX, SWIFT, Market Data feeds. |
FIX/Market data protocol support for clients is a fundamental trading service feature. | |
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SIEM/SOAR Integration Capabilities Connectors for Security Incident and Event Management/Orchestration platforms. |
SIEM/SOAR integration possible via managed SOC for security monitoring. | |
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API Rate Limiting Controls Support for managing volumes of API requests to and from the system. |
API rate controls documented for client/partner integration to prevent DoS/misuse. | |
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Reporting and Data Export Scheduled or ad-hoc export of operational data (CSV, Excel, JSON, etc.). |
Supports scheduled/custom data export (CSV, Excel, integration APIs referenced). | |
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Plugin/Extension Support Third-party or custom modules/extensions can be integrated. |
Integration with third-party plugins/extensions referenced for workflows and automation. | |
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BPM/Workflow Integration Support for business process automation and orchestration tools. |
BPM/workflow integration for trading/business orchestration is available. | |
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Role-Based Integration Permissions Granular permissioning for integrations based on team or role. |
Role-based integration permissions detailed for managed service client setups. | |
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Legacy System Compatibility Ability to integrate with or migrate data from legacy platforms. |
Legacy system migration and integration referenced in onboarding offerings. |
Support & Serviceability
(9 Yes /9 Known /10 Possible features)
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24/7 Vendor Support Availability Live access to technical support at any time. |
24/7 on-call vendor and client support referenced throughout. | |
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Onsite Parts Replacement SLA Guaranteed replacement part arrival time to the data center. |
No information available | |
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Remote Diagnostics Vendor and/or internal IT can remotely troubleshoot via secure network connection. |
Remote diagnostics performed by Options and clients via secure connection. | |
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Self-Service Portal Portal for requesting support, RMAs, and accessing knowledge bases. |
Self Service Portal described for clients for support/ticketing/documentation. | |
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Proactive Health Checks Vendor- or system-initiated periodic health evaluations. |
Proactive managed health checks of hardware/software are described in value proposition. | |
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Hardware Inventory Tracking System tracks current assets, warranty, and support status. |
Asset, warranty, and support status tracking included as part of management services. | |
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Documentation & Training Comprehensive guides and e-learning options for staff. |
Documentation, onboarding, and e-learning/training available for client staff. | |
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Change Management Templates Standardized change request and approval templates. |
Change management workflows, RMA approval and templates referenced. | |
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Custom Maintenance Windows Flexible scheduling for maintenance to minimize business impact. |
Custom maintenance windows supported for financial clients' requirements. | |
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Incident Response Escalation Paths Defined escalation paths for critical system failures. |
Incident escalation and response paths outlined in 24/7 managed support. |
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