INDUSTRY

Sun Microsystems today announced that CDO2, a provider of innovative pricing and risk technology for organizations trading structured credit products, is using the Sun Grid Compute Utility to power automated valuation processes for Independent Valuation and Risk Services Limited (IVRS), a fully owned subsidiary of Lombard Risk Management plc. By using CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid, IVRS is able to offer its customers independent valuations and in-depth analysis of their structured credit portfolios within hours. IVRS is a leading provider of independent valuations and risk measurements of OTC derivatives and hard to value securities for banks, investment funds, administrators, custodians and other institutions. Sun Grid lets customers and partners derive immediate benefits from an open, grid-based computing infrastructure on a pay-per-use utility basis by allowing them to deploy technical applications, accelerate innovation and speed time to results without having to invest in expensive structure. New structured credit products are entering the securitization market almost on a monthly basis, with formerly exotic products now becoming more standard. To accommodate the automated pricing of this rapid product turnover, a robust and scalable infrastructure such as Sun Grid is essential. "As credit becomes a more global business, we have found more demand from our customers to provide them valuations faster than ever," said Christopher Rose, chief executive officer of IVRS. "To meet this increasing demand, we looked to CDO2 -- running on Sun Grid -- to complement our own automated process. By using Sun Grid, we were able to generate financial figures more accurately in hours-instead of days. Sun Grid has given us a significant competitive advantage by providing our customers with more in-depth analysis and detail; more transparency; and has broadened our reach globally." "The massive, on-demand compute power available through Sun Grid has enabled us to combine our innovative pricing and risk technology with Sun Grid to deliver to IVRS significant time-to-market and cost savings," said Gary Kendall, Director of CDO2. "With this new solution, IVRS have been able to develop a unique competitive advantage, providing more in-depth valuations to not only the European and U.S. markets, but to meet the increasingly tight reporting deadlines required for publicly listed and regulated entities. By leveraging our existing investment in Sun Grid we were able to provide this quickly to IVRS so they did not have to invest in or purchase an entire IT infrastructure." "IVRS and other financial institutions are realizing a competitive advantage from faster and more efficient access to financial simulations and information, thanks to CDO2 technologies running on Sun Grid," said Stuart Wells, executive vice president, utility computing, Sun Microsystems. "Sun Grid offers customers a new way to purchase and access secure and scalable compute resources at an affordable price."