TOP 5 GLOBAL SECURITIES FIRM CHOOSES CLEARCUBE TO OUTFIT NEW FACILITY

This global securities firm is a market leader in securities, asset management and credit services. With 700 offices and 53,000 employees worldwide, the financial services provider has earned a reputation for excellence in financial advice and market execution.

After constructing a new facility in Westchester, New York, the firm wanted to outfit its center with a superior computing solution that provided both greater flexibility and reliability. Traditional PCs at their best can only offer 98% availability, which in a 40-hour-per-week environment equals approximately forty hours of downtime per year.

THE SOLUTION

While researching its options, the firm became interested in the ClearCube concept of secure, always on, centralized computing. ClearCube removes the PC from the desk, condenses it into an Intel®-based PC Blade and rackmounts the Blade in a centralized data center.

All that remains at the user’s work area are the peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse) and a small connection device called a User Port, which supports cable, fiber or remote Ethernet access. The solution’s web browser-based asset management software enables IT administrators to remotely manage its computing assets from anywhere in the world.

With locations spread across the globe, the securities firm immediately recognized the benefits of centralized computing and remote management. “We liked how the ClearCube solution would enable both our traders and support staff to have their desktops remotely managed from any- where in the world,” says the Executive Director and Technology Project Manager.

After deploying ClearCube PC Blades on the new trading floor and across its IT, development and HR desks, the enterprise was not disappointed.

“ClearCube’s ‘always on’ desktop solution allows us to virtualize moves/adds/changes (MACs) and use extra hard drive space to store multiple images, all without IT ever leaving their desks,” says the Executive Director. “These capabilities represent significant operating cost savings and are the model for future desktop operations globally.”

THE BENEFIT

In addition to simplifying user and asset manageability, the underlying architecture of the fully Intel® compatible ClearCube system also supports dynamic allocation of resources. As a result, the firm was able to use the Blades as a shared resource for business continuity, “hoteling” its employees and gaining support for the Linux operating system.

The centralized infrastructure of the ClearCube solution also hardened the firm’s asset security ability. Because only IT can access the Blades, users cannot download proprietary data onto a removable storage device or upload potentially harmful software.

Furthermore, the ClearCube software enables workstations to back up other computing resources at the firm, in effect acting as a backup trading floor. “As much as you tell people not to store data locally, invariably it may happen. In the event of a local failure or disaster, it could complicate recovery efforts. This technology would help expedite the recovery effort under those conditions,” explains the Executive Director.

By hardening asset and data security and providing remote management capabilities, ClearCube enabled this leading global securities firm to increase its computing efficiency and asset management while dramatically reducing its IT support costs. “This architecture represents a logical next technology step in the evolution of our trading floor and desktop computing environment,” says the Executive Director. “ClearCube provides us with the right technology at the right time.