[Infowarrior] - LSE to abandon failed Windows platform

[Richard Forno]

         July 1, 2009 - 1:20 P.M.
London Stock Exchange to abandon failed Windows platform
http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_to_abandon_failed_windows_platform
Anyone who was ever fool enough to believe that Microsoft software was  
good enough to be used for a mission-critical operation had their face  
slapped this September when the LSE (London Stock Exchange)'s Windows- 
based TradElect system brought the market to a standstill for almost  
an entire day. While the LSE denied that the collapse was TradElect's  
fault, they also refused to explain what the problem really wa.  
Sources at the LSE tell me to this day that the problem was with  
TradElect.

Since then, the CEO that brought TradElect to the LSE, Clara Furse,  
has left without saying why she was leaving. Sources in the City- 
London's equivalent of New York City's Wall Street--tell me that  
TradElect's failure was the final straw for her tenure. The new CEO,  
Xavier Rolet, is reported to have immediately decided to put an end to  
TradElect.

TradElect runs on HP ProLiant servers running, in turn, Windows Server  
2003. The TradElect software itself is a custom blend of C# and .NET  
programs, which was created by Microsoft and Accenture, the global  
consulting firm. On the back-end, it relied on Microsoft SQL Server  
2000. Its goal was to maintain sub-ten millisecond response times,  
real-time system speeds, for stock trades.

It never, ever came close to achieving these performance goals. Worse  
still, the LSE's competition, such as its main rival Chi-X with its  
MarketPrizm trading platform software, was able to deliver that level  
of performance and in general it was running rings about TradElect.  
Three guesses what MarketPrizm runs on and the first two don't count.  
The answer is Linux.

It's not often that you see a major company dump its infrastructure  
software the way the LSE is about to do. But, then, it's not often you  
see enterprise software fail quite so badly and publicly as was the  
case with the LSE. I can only wonder how many other Windows enterprise  
software failures are kept hidden away within IT departments by  
companies unwilling to reveal just how foolish their decisions to rely  
on archaic, cranky Windows software solutions have proven to be.

I'm sure the LSE management couldn't tell Linux from Windows without a  
techie at hand. They can tell, however, when their business comes to a  
complete stop in front of the entire world.

So, might I suggest to the LSE that they consider Linux as the  
foundation for their next stock software infrastructure? After all,  
besides working well for Chi-X, Linux seems to be doing quite nicely  
for the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), the NYSE (New York Stock  
Exchange), etc., etc.