New Early-Warning System for Calypso Platform Brings Cost and Efficiency Savings to Investment Houses

LONDON, June 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Formicary CalMon  minimises down-time and removes need for staffed overnight monitoring

A new early-warning system to monitor the Calypso trading, risk and processing platform has been launched by Formicary Limited, a leading provider of consultancy and integration software to the financial services industry.   By automating all aspects of system monitoring, and removing the need for manned overnight surveillance, the second-generation Formicary CalMon brings cost and efficiency savings to investment houses by keeping down-time to a minimum.

CalMon is a single web-based console which enables system administrators to centrally monitor multiple Calypso servers and engines in real-time and receive email notifications when a problem occurs. Unlike other monitoring systems, CalMon has been developed to address the specific needs of the trading environment, particularly regarding event consumption, log errors, resource utilisation, and scheduled tasks.  

Recognising that one size doesn't fit all, alerts and warning threshold settings on CalMon are configurable on a per engine, per error or per scheduled task basis.  Altering the parameters to determine at which point an incident status moves from 'major' to 'critical' ensures maximum flexibility and accuracy on when and how it flagged.  Additionally, the colour-coded, user friendly visual monitoring system makes reading and interpreting reports easy.  

Any potential issues are automatically directed to the appropriate team or individual where they can be addressed before they risk escalating into a wider business operational problem.

Unlike some monitoring solutions which only advise on problems once a failure has occurred, CalMon graphically illustrates performance levels so teams can easily see if any aspect of the platform starts slowing down.  Taking early remedial action to address under-performance can help prevent a more serious incident occurring further down the line.  

Should a system failure occur, system administrators can easily search through the historical records of all metrics so that diagnoses can be quickly and cost effectively identified.

"Unexpected downtime is probably the biggest headache for system administrators," comments Hani Suleiman, CTO of Formicary Limited. "Yet, keeping on top of every aspect of a complex trading system 24/7 can be a time consuming, costly and challenging 'chicken and egg' situation. Valuable IT resources are often wasted monitoring for something that might never happen, yet taking an eye off the ball for a minute risks something catastrophic slipping through the net which in turn would require additional diagnosis and fire-fighting time and investment.

"Formicary CalMon aims to eliminate this conundrum so that IT resources can be confidently re-allocated elsewhere to more proactively support the business."

Notes to editors

About Formicary

About Formicary

Formicary is a niche IT consultancy specialising in systems integration for the financial services sector. Since inception 12 years ago, it has specialised in delivering integrated technology solutions that streamline business processes in the front, middle and back office for clients across the industry - from tier one investment banks to hedge funds and fund administrators.

Formicary's systems engineers and business analysts have industry experience covering trading and risk systems from proprietary applications to major third party system deployments.

The company has several practices offering specialised systems and business experience, and is a Murex Business Partner and Calypso Business and Service Partner. Formicary Ltd has offices in London and New York servicing clients in Europe and North America.