ITRS ‘Flexes' Geneos Flow Data Capture, Analysis Capabilities

UK-based real-time systems and latency monitoring vendor ITRS is expanding the range of metrics that its Geneos monitoring platform can capture and analyze -- including data collected in-house and from different components of firms' trading infrastructures beyond market data systems -- in response to clients increasingly seeking to leverage the platform beyond real-time monitoring of front-office systems, to support resource management and for monitoring middle and back-office applications.

ITRS is currently building new features in Geneos to allow customers to import data, such as historical tick data collected in-house into the platform for analysis -- for example, to correlate with capacity usage to help plan for future capacity needs more accurately -- and to export data from Geneos, providing greater flexibility around how customers store and analyze data, to help them make better decisions about improving the performance of their infrastructure, says ITRS chief executive Kevin Covington. These enhancements can also help firms run more analysis on data around specific incidents -- such as sudden spikes in latency -- to determine the root cause more quickly, he adds.

While firms have traditionally used Geneos for real-time systems and applications monitoring, they increasingly also want to leverage the platform to generate more predictive analytics, to help forecast business needs and manage resources more efficiently while lowering total cost of ownership, Covington says.

To further extend the flexibility of its platform, the vendor is also expanding the number of adapters available via its partner program for third-party developers -- which allows technology providers to integrate their solutions with Geneos. ITRS previously built its own application monitoring plug-ins for solutions from vendors such as NYSE Technologies, Tibco and Oracle, but began supporting third-party plug-ins early last year, and is now working with unnamed third-party developers to build Geneos plug-ins for products from derivatives trading and risk management providers Murex and Calypso Technology, Covington says.

By leveraging the expertise of third-party developers, ITRS can deliver new plug-ins for more platforms faster, and therefore more quickly provide capabilities for clients wanting to extend how they use the platform, Covington says. For example, the Murex and Calypso adapters will allow Geneos to monitor message flow in these trading systems and capture metrics such as message rate and volume, to give business users more insight into the status of their orders, and help them comply with regulatory requirements around clearing and settlement, he adds.

In particular, customers want the ability to monitor the flow of trades from their front office through their back-office processes on a real-time basis to gain more granular insight into their post-trade activity on an intraday basis, rather than via end-of-day reports, Covington says. As a result, firms can detect issues such as when and where early indications of a backlog arise that might cause failed trades or delays in clearing, so customers can immediately adjust these processes -- for example, by redirecting order flows or troubleshooting performance issues -- before they negatively impact the firm, he adds.