SCIENCE

BLADE Network Technologies has announced that Options IT, a provider of high-performance Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to the buyside and sellside, has deployed BLADE's RackSwitch 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) top-of-rack technology to ensure lowest possible latency for clients of its PIPE Velocity ultra-low latency market data, connectivity and application hosting service.

PIPE Velocity is a complete HFT technology solution, providing ultra-low latency market data, high throughput market connectivity and vendor neutral application hosting as a single, fully managed service for all major markets across North America, Europe and Asia. PIPE Velocity is one of three IaaS offerings provided via the Options PIPE platform, a fully managed and optimize global technology environment offering on-demand, private cloud technology solutions to more than 120 hedge funds, proprietary trading shops, investment banks and brokerage firms globally.

Options IT ensures optimal HFT performance for PIPE Velocity clients by continuously working to identify and minimize all possible platform latency. Deployment of BLADE's RackSwitch G8124's low latency, lossless top-of-rack 10GbE switching technology is one of the latest developments in that continuous process.

Nigel Kneafsey, chief executive officer at Options IT, said, "Our clients are among the most technologically sophisticated in the industry and require the lowest point-to-point network latency and highest throughput capacity possible to drive their trading strategies. Deploying BLADE's switching technology on our PIPE platform helps to ensure we deliver an optimal technology environment that meets our HFT clients' ultra-low latency requirements."

Commented Charles Ferland, vice president and general manager, EMEA, BLADE Network Technologies: "Here is another example of how the low latency, low cost and low power characteristics of our RackSwitch family are making it the most compelling switching solution for mission-critical high performance financial sector datacenter networking applications. We are committed to bringing speed and intelligence to the network edge; closer to customers' business, users and innovations."

He added: "The most recent Tolly Enterprises benchmark affirms the BLADE RackSwitch G8124's superiority in switch latency, power consumption and price performance compared to Cisco's Nexus 5010 offering."

According to the Tolly Report "BLADE Network Technologies RackSwitch G8124: Competitive Evaluation Versus Cisco Nexus 5010," September 2010-09-20, The BLADE Network Technologies RackSwitch G8124 demonstrated the following advantages over the Cisco Nexus 5010:

• Delivers up to 4.6x lower latency.
• Delivers up to 23x more buffer capacity.
• Consumes up to 45 percent less power.
• Delivers up to 2.7x better price/performance.