Services to the company
Case Study

Directa SIM: high performance for the online trading world with IBM and Var Group

Large computing power for business continuity

The implementation of the two IBM Power10, which took place without service interruptions, coupled with the introduction of High Reliability was a fundamental change for Directa SIM, a leading online trading company that has improved the resilience of its systems and ensured continuous service to its clients, even during maintenance. Having upgraded the Disaster Recovery site, initially located in London and now moved to Lombardy near the primary system, now allows for rapid response in the event of a fault, keeping systems aligned in real time thanks to IBM Power HA. Finally, thanks to PEP technology, it is possible to share and have resources available and, thanks to a pay-as-you-go business formula, perfectly accommodate the dynamism of the financial market.

From storage to High Reliability, a complete technology set-up by IBM

Directa SIM had two Power machines that housed all core transactions and operations that needed to be protected and enhanced with greater performance and flexibility. A need that was also confirmed by contingent events, such as the war in Ukraine, which made all financial markets move unpredictably and, with them, all our clients, suddenly requiring unplannable resources. This is also why we decided to reinforce the primary site with a second machine, creating a resilient system that gave us greater computing capabilities and helped us optimize resources and keep systems aligned in real time with enormous cost and time benefits.

IBM Power10: resilience and data security

Another element of the project that has made a difference is IBM virtualization: the same physical machine can also host departmental machines thus having fewer machines to manage (and thus cost savings), and inheriting the efficiency of machines in redundant structure. By also compacting smaller machines and collateral services into a single site, the company has achieved overall consolidation. PEP technology was another major boost by allowing resource sharing between sister machines: if one of them is down, in fact, its resources remain usable, and this arrangement helps to optimize all available resources and improve operations.

Consultative approach and excellence solutions

Directa SIM is a financial intermediary, a pioneer in online trading that enables its clients to send orders on the world's major financial markets in a few hundredths of a second, thanks to secure and innovative systems. Since its inception in 1995, Directa SIM has always used IBM i servers: a historic partnership that has ensured business continuity over time. The choice of IBM is therefore quickly explained, while the collaboration with Var Group finds its strengths in the specialization and solid partnership that binds it to this international vendor and that has allowed it to design together with the client a more performant infrastructure adapted to business needs and that will also be a solid base for future evolutions.

“Thanks to Var Group's consulting specialization and the reliability of IBM architectures, we have obtained great computing capacity and a consumable business formula that allows us to pander to the intemperances of the financial market without fear and satisfy our clients with the right technological set-up.”

Andrea Busi | CEO Directa SIM