Reuters, working with HP, Intel Corporation and Red Hat, is ready to deliver its premium market data system (RMDS) on Intel-based systems and Linux.
The news and information group says RMDS can now be deployed on Intel-based industry-standard HP ProLiant servers running the Red Hat Linux advanced server.
RMDS combines Reuters' Triarch market data solution with the TIB market data distribution system to deliver integrated real-time data and news over the Internet. The RDMS platform has in the past only been available on Sun Solaris.
Reuters and partners collectively participated in the porting, testing and optimisation of RMDS on HP ProLiant servers running a heavy-duty version of Red Hat Linux.
Reuters says RMDS on linux is gaining ground among financial institutions by providing an alternative to proprietary operating systems. Peter Lankford, head of real-time content management solutions, Reuters, says: "Customers see RMDS on Linux as an important way to reduce their costs of operation, while improving operational efficiencies."
The vendors claim that initial testing on RMDS revealed that performance on a Linux-based system is between two and five times greater than that of a competing Unix platform.
Six global investment banks agreed to test the Reuters system last May when the Linux project was first announced. One of the five is understood to be actively using the system in a live production environment.
HP claims that Reuters on Linux played a large part in its recent boast of $2 billion in open source computer sales.