This complex operation was guided not only by the necessary level of security and quality of technical infrastructure for all market participants, but primarily by the growing activity of trading participants as reflected in the huge increase of the number of orders placed during trading sessions. This was doubtless the largest and most complex system operation since the implementation of WARSET. All central and associated projects of replacement of the WARSET central computer were carried out by the WSE.

The WARSET system was implemented in November 2000. Its maximum capacity determined by the technology used at the time of implementation was then much above the needs of the market. It must be remembered that the number of orders placed during trading sessions was many times lower than now and that on-line orders were few (representing only a few percent of the total number). The WARSET system could support around 40 orders per second, or several hundred thousand orders for several dozen thousand transactions per trading session. Due to the capacity parameters of the system, internal systems of brokerage houses were subject to some restrictions. After the implementation of WARSET, trading processes became more and more automated. This trend combined with the overall growing activity of exchange members in response to market needs resulted in a huge increase in the number of orders placed during trading sessions. Consequently, the required capacity of the trading system grew very fast.

In the past 6 years, the technological platform supporting the WARSET system trading application has remained unchanged except for the replacement of auxiliary components. In its years of operation, the system was upgraded on several occasions, but the modifications were minor. The time came for a thorough upgrade of the architecture.

The WSE Management Board last year decided to replace the hardware. The WSE Management decided to replace a part of the WARSET system infrastructure, in particular the central computer. A state-of-the-art HP NS computer using current technological standards, including fast Itanium processors, was selected. The new hardware was tested until December 2006 to verify the feasibility of the installation and operation of the trading application in the new technological environment as well as its capacity. Detailed functional, integration, and capacity testing was carried out for another 6 months in co-operation with all market participants: brokerage houses, banks, the Financial Supervision Commission, the National Depository for Securities, and exchange information vendors. The last testing session was completed over the weekend of 2-3 June 2007.

WARSET is an IT system composed of many diverse, interlinked and interfaced infrastructure elements. The replacement of the central computer, the most important but not the only WARSET component, had an impact on all other components. Increased capacity of one system component without a parallel increase in the capacity of other components would create a bottleneck in other parts of the system, and consequently the capacity of the entire system would not increase. Therefore, one of the major IT management projects running on the WSE focuses on IT system capacity management. As a result, the WARSET central computer replacement project was associated with other projects upgrading other system components, including the sub-system responsible for the distribution of orders, transaction information and other exchange communications, the WAN, the VSAT distribution of exchange information, trading participant access points to the WSE, and the CYKLOP multimedia trading presentation system.

The achieved capacity of the WARSET system in its current configuration, confirmed in testing, is 4.5 times higher than before the upgrade. The system can support nearly 180 orders per second without any delay in the central application. Capacity restrictions due to the number of supported orders and transactions were significantly reduced. The new WARSET central computer using state-of-the-art technology is scalable and can be expanded depending on the needs of the exchange market.