Comment Accenture had a hand in this too (Score 5, Interesting) 498
Typical PHB and incompetent/ expensive consulting services debacle. See below for an older ComputerWorld blog entry.
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July 1, 2009
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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
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.
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