StatPro Group PLC
Gaining competitive advantage from innovative, high-performance computing
StatPro Group plc is a leading provider of portfolio analytics solutions for the global asset management industry. The solutions it provides help managers analyse complex portfolios of investments to see how they are performing and assess the risks associated with them.
StatPro has around 400 client contracts in 25 countries, with 11 offices worldwide. The company has grown its recurring revenue from less than £1 million in 1999 to £18.7 million in 2007.
One of the services StatPro provides is calculating the risk on client's investment portfolios. For this millions of calculations must be performed every day, with the data being sent out to clients each night.
In order to maintain competitive advantage it is important for StatPro to continuously increase the types of data analysis it provides to its customers and the types of securities it reports on. The data processing involved with this kind of large-scale financial analysis is extremely intensive in terms of computing power and also, because of the huge quantities of data needed, heavy in its use of high performance storage.
The challenge of business growth
Processing for each portfolio can take many hours too complete and StatPro's computing resources were becoming stretched to meet the demand in the time available. The speed of change in financial markets means that timeliness is absolutely critical to Statpro's customers, so Neil Smyth, CTO at StatPro, was under pressure to find a solution that would meet the large-scale specialised computing requirements cost effectively and would also scale efficiently for future business growth.
"We did not want to be in the same position in three years time, having to go back to the board to ask for more funds for another major system upgrade," observes Neil. "We needed a solution with an open architecture that would allow us to add capacity incrementally and be able to leverage new technology in the future."
Because the large analysis applications at the core of StatPro's business have complex computing requirements, Neil enlisted the help of the senior StatPro Risk Management (SRM) architect, who was based in Milan, in the search for a high-powered, scalable, clustered infrastructure that would meet the requirement.
Finding the solution
Together they carefully assessed the offerings from the major technology suppliers - Microsoft, IBM and HP - using web resources and soon settled on HP as having the most appropriate solution with its Scalable File Share (SFS) grid computing product. SFS combines multiple processing nodes and pools of high speed disc storage in a grid configuration, controlled by bespoke software developed by HP to process data at much higher speeds than possible with conventional clustered configurations.
Although SFS was an innovative and specialised solution and, therefore, not widely deployed, Statpro's history of successful experiences with HP equipment meant that Neil had confidence in the design of the solution and the quality of the products employed.
Building the solution with ISC
Having decided on the way forward, Neil needed a highly capable IT partner to help build the solution and ensure it meets its objectives. The product design might have great potential, but successful implementation depends on rigorous attention to detail. ISC had worked with Statpro for many years and are experts in HP technology, so Neil turned to this trusted service provider to take the project forward.
The first task assigned to ISC was to thoroughly validate the choice of solution and ensure that the technology would address all aspects of StatPro's business needs. ISC storage specialists carefully checked the performance and scalability capabilities of the SFS solution. They also investigated operational issues, checking where the product knowledge was located and how technical support would be provided.
ISC enjoys a close working relationship with HP and, as part of the validation process, arranged for Neil and his application architect to spend two days with the product developers in Grenoble. This provided an opportunity to see the product in action and to ask more penetrating questions about the way the Statpro applications would exploit the SFS technology.
After the Grenoble sessions, Neil felt he had the information needed to proceed. ISC then worked with Statpro and HP to create detailed hardware specifications and project plans for delivery and installation. The initial configuration consisted of two HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Arrays managed by an HP ProLiant DL380 server, with computing power provided by four HP DL140 64 bit machines.
ISC took responsibility for managing the hardware installation and the more complex tasks of configuring the SFS software, tuning for optimum performance and testing. In addition to assembling all the technical information needed, ISC recognised that specialist expertise would be required and brought in a implementation partner that had the SFS knowledge needed for this critical phase.
Having prepared detailed projects plans, ISC proceeded to manage the execution and all the supplier and partner relationships. "Only having one person to deal with was of enormous benefit to us. ISC found and managed all the resources needed, freeing us to focus on our business needs," said Neil.
The intensive efforts of ISC, the implementation partner and StatPro's SRM application experts were well rewarded when the new infrastructure began to deliver the expected level of performance, and the business could take advantage of the extra capacity and ramp up its services. Neil was understandably pleased with the outcome, noting that, "From starting the research to going live with ground breaking technology had only taken five months, which is a major achievement."
The benefits
With the new infrastructure delivering 19 million calculations a day, and having the capacity for much more, Neil is confident that the decision to go with HP SFS was correct. StatPro's ability to deliver the expected return on investments has been extended to a broader range of assets, and complex analysis runs that used to take thirty minutes per security can now be done in less than five minutes.
"Time really is money in our line of business and the ability to run assessments and reports more quickly means that we can accommodate more customers and offer higher levels of service. This results in higher revenues, better customer relationships and a better reputation in the market," observes Neil.
When first installed, the system delivered up to three times faster processing. But since then, with further optimisation and additional nodes added, the workload capacity has more than tripled again, with the results being delivered in less time than the old infrastructure.
A key benefit of the solution, and a principal reason for choosing HP SFS, is the effortless scalability it affords. No replacement of equipment is involved and no disruption of services occurs when adding capacity. The system has already grown to twelve computing nodes and Statpro expects to add more every six months.
Neil particularly appreciates the effort put in by the ISC consultants, who leveraged their close working relationship with HP to resolve issues quickly. "ISC's skills and resourcefulness in getting the systems built and set up correctly enabled us to meet our business goals. We will continue to use them whenever the need for a major project arises," says Neil.
"I know that, however complex the task, ISC can manage supplier relationships effectively and have the knowledge and skills to meet the challenge."
Neil Smyth, CTO, StatPro
