Under the agreement, the SAVVIS DDU is now providing FTEN with a normalized 'plug and play' interface to access these multiple data sources and data compression to reduce the amount of bandwidth needed to access the data. In addition, FTEN is reducing its total cost of ownership by outsourcing all entitlements, monitoring, and reporting functions to SAVVIS. All of this is backed by SAVVIS' end-to-end service level agreement.

The increased use of automated algorithmic or "black-box" trading, as well as other time- sensitive strategies being employed by professional traders, highlights the need for faster and more accurate data feeds, especially as the quantity and depth of data provided by exchanges and required by traders continues to increase exponentially. As a result, financial firms are forced to install and maintain more expensive infrastructures in order to access trading venues and data sources.

DDU by SAVVIS is a high-performance cost-effective utility service that seamlessly integrates technology from HyperFeed Technologies with SAVVIS' global network offering, creating an ultra low-latency solution that accesses real-time direct data sources and answers the call of financial services firms that have traditionally relied on maintaining expensive ticker plants and slower consolidated feeds. Direct feeds offer firms high performance at a high cost, while consolidated feeds offer very low performance at an average cost. DDU provides firms with the best of both worlds - high performance, ultra low-latency access at a disruptively low price point.

"FTEN prides itself on addressing pressing needs in the financial services industry with cutting-edge technology solutions like our DX(TM) Direct Market Access platform, RX(TM) intraday risk management system and VX(TM) black- box solution," says Gary LaFever, FTEN's Chief Operating Officer. "Due to their increasing sophistication, our clients evolved beyond the capabilities of any available consolidated data feed. The SAVVIS DDU model gives us the best real-time data solution by providing direct feed capabilities on a fully hosted and utility basis. With DDU, we can provide our clients with the benefit of highly scalable and redundant direct ticker plants at the lowest possible cost."

"As a leading provider of direct market access and risk management technology to the financial community, FTEN and their customers are some of the most demanding on Wall Street," says Matt Fox, Vice President and General Manager of SAVVIS' Financial Services Division. "DDU was developed specifically to address the needs of companies like FTEN for whom a consolidated feed is too slow and who need the performance of a direct feed but don't want to manage a ticker plant infrastructure."