Activ Builds Bridge to ‘Future-Proofed’ Data Platforms

Data vendor and low-latency data technology provider Activ Financial has released a set of data integration tools, dubbed Enterprise Data Integration Suite (EDIS), in response to what the vendor says is increasing concern among financial firms over the long-term viability of legacy data platforms.

“EDIS is a set of components designed to integrate with internal and third-party feeds and data platforms, and is aimed at people with exposure to incumbent platforms like [Refinitiv’s] TREP data platform, and recognizes that people are concerned about the technology roadmap and cost … and offers a path toward an alternative, based on Activ’s underpinning technology,” says Activ COO Jim Bomer. “The big firms have very complex environments that have grown over the years. We’re not expecting that anyone will turn their back on their existing investment, but this gives them a way to support all their existing applications and migrate them gradually to a new platform.”

EDIS is vendor-neutral, multi-tenant, includes symbology cross-referencing to support other vendors’ data formats, and runs on Activ’s Activ One Platform (AOP) messaging middleware, to provide a bridge between different technology platforms and data sources that can also cache, conflate and delay data, connect to Activ’s global distribution network, and handle on-demand calculations.

The platform runs on Linux servers, of which Activ has around 1,200 deployed worldwide to support its existing services. AOP can also run in the cloud, and Bomer says that although the vendor has seen limited interest in running the entire platform in the cloud, it is ready for that eventuality.

“We’re not trying to duplicate all of the esoteric features of a platform like TREP, but instead we’re focused on addressing the core functionality that everyone needs,” Bomer says, adding that firms can adopt elements of EDIS at their own pace to meet specific needs, and then expand its use cases within their firms, integrating with their existing data sources, and transferring applications to run natively on the new platform.

“Ultimately, we hope people will use this as a standalone platform that becomes the new bedrock of their data architecture. No one is going to turn around and completely shift just like that, so this needs to integrate [with other platforms] for some time,” he says. “You need to be thinking about your platform in five to 10 years’ time, and asking whether you are happy sitting on the same technology stack that you have now.”

A source at another data technology provider notes that while large financial firms are often very risk-averse when it comes to big infrastructure changes, this approach may leave them potentially exposed to high levels of risk concerning the reliability, performance, and future roadmap of legacy third-party platforms.

Three tier-one investment banks are already using EDIS, officials say. A data executive at one of these firms, who requested anonymity, says the platform allows different business areas to “dip their toe in the water” as and when they experience a need to change. This executive notes that with a forever-rising tide of data demands and a “shrinking island” of traditional market data management platforms, “at some point, something’s got to give. … But the top-tier firms are so entrenched that at some point down the road, those platforms may become untenable.”

The executive also says Activ’s approach to addressing the bank’s challenges was refreshing. “They were one of the first vendors who—instead of saying ‘Here’s what we’ve got to sell you’—said, ‘Tell us what you want,’” the executive says.

Bomer says the idea for EDIS came around 2014 when Activ was figuring out how to optimize elements of its underlying infrastructure—which ultimately became AOP—and how it could best serve its clients in the future. “We asked ourselves: What is the key problem that people face when trying to de-risk their future?” he says. “We’ve often developed our systems at clients to interoperate with TREP, so we took that concept and looked ahead.”