RBC Capital Markets bets on Solace and Arista

Sell-Side Technology, a publication of Waters Technology, just published an article that describes how RBC Capital Markets is bolstering their services in the global equities trading business with a new low latency trading system based on technology including our message routers and Ethernet switches from Arista Networks.

Seth Gelberg, CTO of global equities and futures, discussed the strategic approach they take when designing and building their infrastructure:

“We build in the business layer to differentiate the product. We buy best-of-breed infrastructure and we partner with firms like Solace and Arista to move performance-sensitive business layer components to the infrastructure.”

Bruce Macdonald, global head of electronic trading and commodities, described what the platform will do for them beyond pure performance gains:

“We build what gives us a competitive advantage and purchase where it makes sense. Initiating key technology gets us to the table stakes when it comes to the race to zero [latency]. However, the real game is pushing the extensibility of these platforms.”

The extensibility Bruce mentions is the ability to move elements of their trading applications from software into intelligent accelerated hardware for dramatically better performance. Arista Networks Extensible Operating System (EOS) allows packet switching decisions to be augmented with custom code inside their Ethernet switches, and we’re working with RBC to implement their smart order routing practices in the FPGAs and network processors inside our message routers. It’s a bold move and positions them well for continued global growth.

In addition to fueling innovation, Solace’s technology is helping RBC consolidate their messaging infrastructure from half a dozen different message buses into a single shared service layer.

The article requires registration but covers many good points, if you’re a subscriber I encourage you to read in its entirety.