FTIL will deploy eXtremeDB in its Microsoft Windows Server-based DOME (Distributed Order Management Engine) trading platform and in other software products responsible for aggregating data received from multiple sources, filtering it to support end-users' requests, and enabling recognition of patterns of interest.

"eXtremeDB replaces the relational database management system (RDBMS) that previously supported middle-tier functions in existing products, while some of our new solutions will adopt the architecture based on eXtremeDB from day one," explained Jigish Sonagara, senior vice president, FTIL. Sorting and updating records with minimal latency is central to the application's principal task of turning a flood of raw data into useful information that can be accessed instantly. "A growing volume of data at this level of the system is what prompted our company to seek a database solution that offers greater efficiency than traditional RDBMS software, which has been a staple of financial markets for several decades," Mr. Sonagara added.

In-memory database systems have emerged more recently -- the first commercial products appeared in mid-1990s -- with the promise of higher performance. An IMDS manages data entirely in main memory, eliminating the latency associated with disk and file I/O, cache management, data transfers and other functions that are "hard-wired" into RDBMSs. It is this streamlined design that enables the IMDS to perform an order of magnitude faster than traditional relational database systems.

Engineers at FTIL researched the IMDS product category and chose eXtremeDB based on stringent evaluation criteria. eXtremeDB met these requirements via the following features and capabilities:

• Speed. McObject designed eXtremeDB from a scratch as an IMDS, with all its features built on top of the core in-memory database engine. McObject's published benchmarks document speed approaching 100 million query transactions per second. The system has been able to consistently meet the growing needs of demanding applications, ranging from telecommunications routing to real-time financial trading.
• Standards-based. The SQL language is standard for database programming in finance and other enterprise sectors. FTIL required support for SQL and also for the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard. McObject's eXtremeSQL product provides a high performance SQL implementation that is also ODBC-compliant.
• Scalable. eXtremeDB is available in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. Its optional multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) transaction manager is optimized for multi-threaded applications running on multi-core CPUs. In McObject's terabyte (TB) plus benchmark, eXtremeDB shows a near linear performance increase when adding processor cores and managing a 15.54 billion row, 1.17 TB database entirely in main memory.
• Reliable. To maximize database durability in its mission critical application, FTIL leverages eXtremeDB's support for transaction logging. This provides recovery capabilities for the database in the event of a system failure.
• Multi-platform support. To serve the largest possible market, now and in the future, FTIL needed its database system to run on both Linux and Microsoft Windows. McObject fully supports these platforms, as well as others.

"We are happy to be associated with FTIL, which is a globally-established financial vertical solution vendor. As the case of FTIL illustrates, companies adopting eXtremeDB gain a low-latency solution as well as key strengths including scalability, reliability and standards support. McObject is increasingly active in the capital markets sector, with companies discovering that integration of eXtremeDB enables their technology to reach previously unattainable levels of performance. We are committed to providing a database solution that enables financial system developers to respond quickly and successfully to the challenges encountered in this rapidly-evolving environment," said Chris Mureen, chief operating officer of McObject.