Business,
Simplified.

Microsoft SQL Server

The Problem

The customer, a leading global investment bank, runs a variety of bespoke and packaged systems in its financial markets business unit. One of the key applications is a web-based share trading system that it provides to a wide range of its portfolio-managed clients. The system collects real-time price feeds from stock exchanges and enables clients to monitor market movements and place buy and sell orders for immediate execution. Timing is critical for these orders – if the market moves before an order is processed, clients may lose large amounts of money. This system had a long history of unreliability, with the following specific problems:

In addition, the system had failed all disaster recovery tests with negative comment from
internal audit.

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The Diagnosis

Youngblood was requested to provide a senior consultant DBA to deal with the various issues, who diagnosed a number of problem areas.

The Windows Performance Monitor provided 1st-level diagnostic information. Many counters had been initiated by in-house staff and other consultants, but the interpretation of these was incomplete. The consultant identified immediately that 10 was critically slow, caused by a poorly configured SAN. SOL wait statistics also indicated inefficient code as well as a defunct indexing strategy. The progressively poorer performance of the system was attributable to poor change control, inadequate testing, and lack of understanding of SOL Server design principles when developing application code. In addition, poorly controlled access to production data had resulted in changes to data that damaged its integrity. There were large volumes of queries that severely affected system performance as well as the client experience.

The Intervention

The Youngblood consultant undertook the following remedial actions:

Intervention Results

The following were measured:

Current Scenario

The application of Youngblood’s disciplined approach and deep understanding of Microsoft technology has changed a strategic business offering from being a serious risk, to becoming a strong contributor to the bottom line, and a potent brand-builder for complementary marketing.

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Business,

Simplified.

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