Hope the transition is smooth.
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Feb 08, 2011 3:57 AM EDT |
I have seen this article (or similar info) earlier, but it's a good one to read again. The staggering number is the 400 fold increase in trading efficiency by moving from a Windows based system to a Linux based system......I know nothing of stock exchanges but I can follow the logic: the greater the speed of transactions, the more efficient the exchange, the lower the costs and the more trading will be done - greater profits have to result. I know the LSE had two (?) problems with their move but that transfer to Linux is now taking place definitely and I believe will be finished very shortly this half year. One problem appears to have been human error, the second is under police investigation last time I saw it and the word "sabotage" was not mentioned but implied, so it is possible somebody did not like the LSE moving to Linux. Given the NY exchange has moved to a Linux based system with excellent results (as far as I know) I not surprised that for sheer competition, efficiency and lower costs both the LSE and JSE have nearly moved or are about to move. What a marvellous bit of kudos for Linux ! |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 08, 2011 11:03 AM EDT |
Rid, Back in 2000/2001 when I was working for a high-power investment broker (hedge fund, long gone by now), I got let into the server rooms of some big name investment banks. Think "bail-out". Anyway, this was in Tokyo, and every one of them was deploying Linux in their back-end systems. They all considered these deployments to be "competitive advantage" kind of secrecy and importance. Of course they all knew that the others were doing it, just not _how_ in particular. As an aside, inside the server rooms themselves, taking up exceptionally valuable high-security raised-floor space, in exceptionally expensive Tokyo, were stacks and STACKS of SPARC-1 to SPARC-20 "pizza box" systems. Hundreds of them that I saw. The security policies made throwing them away or recycling the hardware impossible. Like nuclear waste, they had to store it regardless of how valuable they were if they could have been reprocessed. Immense waste. No wonder so many needed bailing out! |
| Ridcully Feb 08, 2011 5:19 PM EDT |
Bob, That's a remarkable story and made all the more fascinating by the fact that you actually saw the situation. It makes you wonder how many other hidden examples of this "storage for security's sake" are around...sort of like a world wide warehouse similar to the one at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The special situation you are describing however seems rather like a self-inflicted wound. |
| tracyanne Feb 08, 2011 5:46 PM EDT |
I don't understand, what is it about this hardware that it would be considered a security risk? |
| gus3 Feb 08, 2011 5:59 PM EDT |
Customers' names and account numbers in the residual magnetic gauss on the hard drives. |
| tracyanne Feb 08, 2011 6:02 PM EDT |
So remove the hard drives, recycle the rest. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 08, 2011 6:06 PM EDT |
TA, that was my suggestion too, but they said it was more expensive to certify the hardware as cleaned than to just store it and hope the rules changed later on. Such waste. Linux was so fast on the SPARCs I got a chance to play with. |
| Ridcully Feb 08, 2011 6:10 PM EDT |
Tracyanne.........Bob may correct me on this, but I got the idea that the "Firm's" security was involved in the fact that if any of the competitors saw the particular hardware stacks, they could deduce what type of software was being used and therefore destroy the "Firm's" competitive advantage. Sort of like, everybody else is on Windows, but we are on Linux and therefore doing things better and faster.....But Gus3 also has a point in my opinion. PS........Ahhhh, Bob has replied already and confirming it was "cleaning the drives"...... |
| gus3 Feb 08, 2011 6:14 PM EDT |
A small thermonuclear device should wipe the hard drives well enough... |
| Ridcully Feb 08, 2011 6:29 PM EDT |
I saw somewhere a year or two back that if you really wanted to stop anyone from reading a drive and destruction of the drive was not an issue, the simplest way was to drive a spike through it....... |
| Steven_Rosenber Feb 08, 2011 8:41 PM EDT |
I never succeeded in getting a Linux distribution installed on my Sparcstation 20. I tried the Debian Sarge installer at one point, and it just didn't work. OpenBSD does work. Most Linux and BSD projects cast 32-bit SPARC off on a raft years ago. |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 08, 2011 8:54 PM EDT |
> the simplest way was to drive a spike through it. After a "wipe", what I've done is use a big wrench to bend the case/platters until they broke. I like the spike idea. If I lived in the kind of rural paradise I would prefer, I'd shoot it. Several times. > cast 32-bit SPARC off on a raft years ago. Yes. And a sad fate for so much beautifully designed hardware. Sun really did make exquisite hardware, until they too went commodity Intel. One of my daydreams is that OpenSPARC takes off and someone starts building systems with it. Oh well, when I'm a wealthy internationally known blogger, perhaps I can make it happen by, like Opra, casually mentioning what a good system it would make. (ok, Opra mentions a book its sales go directly to #1, in case you didn't know) |
| jdixon Feb 08, 2011 10:09 PM EDT |
> If I lived in the kind of rural paradise I would prefer, I'd shoot it. Several times. I've always wanted to try target practice on a hard drive with a good rifle myself. Never had a reason to though. I do live in such a rural area though, and I have a 7mm rifle, so I'm all set if the need arises. |
| Steven_Rosenber Feb 09, 2011 1:12 AM EDT |
Skeet shooting with hard drives? |
| Bob_Robertson Feb 09, 2011 12:30 PM EDT |
> Skeet shooting with hard drives? I know a guy who did skeet shooting with Netcom disks. Really. |
| gus3 Feb 09, 2011 1:30 PM EDT |
I worked with a guy who wallpapered his cubicle with AOL CD's, and still had a stack of them 50cm tall. |
Posting in this forum is limited to members of the group: [ForumMods, SITEADMINS, MEMBERS.]
Becoming a member of LXer is easy and free. Join Us!