In high-speed and high-availability trading environments, it’s no secret that even a one-second delay in a transaction can make all the difference on the outcome of the trade. Honing in on this challenge, application performance monitoring solutions expert Datacom Systems (News - Alert) has now introduced a new network monitoring device designed specifically for these environments.

The new matrix switch – called SingleStream 2222 – is designed for collocation operators and hosting service providers so that they can passively tap up to 10, 10G or 1G communication links with minimized latency. In fact, any latency experienced will be the five nanoseconds it takes to insert the SingleStream inline.

Once deployed, not only can these tapped connections be leveraged by market participants’ networks or trade latency tools to monitor financial trading, but collocation providers can sell tapped connectivity to end-users for their personal monitoring. The end result is a unique opportunity to deliver high-value services to end-clients.

Part of these valuable services include access to copies of network traffic for service assurance monitoring. Since the device operates at speeds of up to 10Gbps, up to eight SingleStream 2222 devices can be linked together so the service provider can monitor approximately 80 10G links with only a single monitoring device – a unique capability unseen in the market, until now.

"We have developed the SingleStream 2222 in conjunction with a major co-location service provider within the high frequency trading space,” said Kevin Formby, Datacom Systems’ recently hired CEO. “It allows them to offer new capabilities to their clients and at the same time provides full monitoring and service assurance on these critical network links. We are pleased to have worked closely with this customer, and are now able to offer this to a wider range of co-location providers. This device is well suited to service providers, and provides useful capabilities to large scale HFTs who need to maintain a sophisticated low latency monitoring infrastructure."

Company officials also tout SingleStream 2222’s “hard-wired” tapped connections, meaning tapped links face no chance of becoming misconfigured or sending data to the improper HFT – a danger often plaguing conventional matrix switches. Furthermore, the device also boasts optical transceivers that can “boost” the light signal level for end-users to guarantee market or trade data information is properly received.

SingleStream 222 won’t be the last financial trading product to come out of Datacom Systems this year, as confirmed by Formby.

"Datacom Systems is a significant provider of network monitoring infrastructure in the financial services and banking markets,” continued Formby. “We intend to strengthen our presence in these markets. This represents the first product designed specifically for the financial markets and several more products and services will be announced in the coming months to expand our presence for our financially focused customers.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli