ENTERTAINMENT

BNP Paribas Arbitrage has selected Platform Computing, the world’s largest distributed and grid computing software provider, to provide an end-to-end solution for its Equity and Derivatives division. In an industry first, BNP Paribas Arbitrage is deploying Platform Computing's Symphony solution to re-use the unutilised capacity of 2000 desktops allowing the company to save money by reducing investment in new hardware, and achieve a higher level of return on investment from its existing equipment. Platform Symphony will also be used with 500 dedicated servers to further boost BNP Paribas' processing capacity. This contract marks an important first for the grid computing industry. Traditionally, grid computing was largely used to maximise the power of server equipment. However, as organisations seek to maximise the output of their IT infrastructure and become more efficient, Platform Computing is taking this one step further for BNP Paribas by enabling them to extend the benefits of the distributed and grid model to include desktop PC capacity. As a provider of Equities and Derivatives products, BNP Paribas delivers powerful risk, pricing and Value At Risk (VAR) calculations to the Equities and Derivatives market using IT equipment that requires huge processing power. Market demand for these calculations is growing by 10 – 15 per cent per month and BNP Paribas' existing IT model did not wish to respond on a long term basis. The bank therefore needed to adapt its IT strategy and look for solutions that would allow them to keep IT costs down, meet the demands of its customers and have the infrastructure in place to meet the aggressive growth it is experiencing. With its ability to extend the use of existing hardware and capacity, BNP Paribas chose to adopt the grid computing model as integral to its business growth and IT strategy for the future. This need was underlined when it found that only 10 per cent of its desktop capacity was being used. With Platform Symphony, resource utilisation can be increased to 80 per cent without the need to invest in any additional hardware. Platform's solution is currently being deployed across 2000 desktops which continue to be used to process their normal work during the day, and then turn their vast processing power to run equity calculations at night . As demand continues to grow, Platform's Symphony solution may eventually be used to extend the capacity of an additional 5,000 or more desktop PCs. After a thorough evaluation of the grid computing vendors, including Data Synapse, BNP Paribas chose to work with Platform Computing due to its experience and knowledge of the financial services market and long-standing reputation as a leading provider of grid computing solutions. Mr Bernard Gavgani, Chief Operating Officer at BNP Paribas commented, "Working with Platform to adopt an enterprise grid computing model is fundamental to our growth strategy for the future. Already with Platform Symphony we will be able to maximise the return from our existing IT investments, reducing further spending while simplifying the management of our infrastructure and systems. With established leadership in the financial services market, Platform’s expertise has been vital to ensure that we are taking the right steps to move our IT strategy to a distributed computing model." Songnian Zhou, CEO and Chairman Platform Computing added, "The financial services sector is highly competitive and to remain on the forefront it’s essential to harness the idle power on existing IT infrastructures. On average, financial services organisations have 20,000 desktop PCs running at only 10 per cent capacity. This presents a wealth of resource that can save money, boost efficiency, and improve data processing and applications delivery."