No tolerance for downtime: how TFB solutions help brokers maintain service availability

Author: Alexey Kutsenko

When you think of the perfect broker software, what qualities do you have in mind? It must have all the functionality that you need, and it should be easy to use. But first and foremost, it needs to remain online, regardless of the load and intensity of your operations. If your environment goes down during active trading hours, there is little point in advanced settings and custom features.

Today, we will share how TFB solutions ensure service availability and remain online regardless of the circumstances.

Availability in Trade Processor liquidity bridge

The bridge is arguably the most important component of the infrastructure. So it requires multiple levels of protection:

1. Distributed architecture means that the components of the solution are installed on several hardware boxes. This type of installation is more reliable, scalable, and secure.

2. The Backup Liquidity Provider (LP) feature secures a seamless trading process. If something happens to the primary LP, the software switches over to the secondary LP to ensure an uninterrupted trading experience for the traders. The solution will roll back to the primary LP once it is live again.

3. The monitoring page of Trade Processor shows the real-time state of all system components. It serves as a proactive tool against disasters that can be foreseen and predicted.

4. Scheduled backups of the configuration to the remote server help restore the bridge in the unlikely event of a critical system failure. So, if a disaster occurred that couldn’t be avoided with the help of proactive monitoring, there is a way to mitigate the consequences and get back online as soon as possible.

5. We provide brokers with a choice: they can select to install the Trade Processor on their side or to have it hosted by TFB. Each type of installation has its own strengths and benefits. If we talk about our hosting, it is located in data centers (DC) spread worldwide and close to the financial centers. Each DC provides top security and performance, so there is no time wasted with each operation.

6. Role-based access to the software helps prevent accidents and malicious actions. There is also an additional level of security available for onsite installations: it is possible to configure Trade Processor to be unavailable from outside the network.

Availability in Brokerage Business Intelligence (BBI)

BBI is the advanced solution for data monitoring, reporting, and management. When it comes to the functionality associated with service availability, the main two features should be pointed out:

1. Alerts that run 24/7 and can be customised to fit the unique requirements of each broker. Each alert can be assigned a threshold, and once it is achieved, the alert will go off. They can be set up for trading or the environment, e.g., letting you know if the servers are about to reach their maximum capacity.

2. Internal reports unlock many opportunities to maintain availability. They can be configured to show trends, software and hardware performance, and anything else to spot any potential issues early.

Additionally, when the TFB solutions are just being rolled out, our technical team runs a check to verify that the configuration supports best practices and ensures top performance. Sometimes, slight changes to the settings can have a significant effect on the speed of the system. And because all our products have user-friendly interfaces, there is less risk of making a mistake or missing an important setting.

Do you have any questions about service availability or our solutions in particular? Please feel free to email us at sales@t4b.com, and we will get back to you shortly.