Jeff Brokaw

Jeff Brokaw
Mr. Brokaw joined Informatica following the acquisition of 29West Inc., leaders in Messaging Middleware. Now he is a Product Marketing Manager. While in a previous life, he wrote lots of code for mainframe and client/server database applications for two major software tools vendors, now he writes words for people instead, and likes that better.

Real-Time Risk Analytics with Ultra Messaging and Data Transformation

To follow up on our recent blog about B2B Data Transformation and Ultra Messaging Cache Option, we would now like to discuss the same topic within the Capital Markets.

One up-and-coming use case in the Capital Markets that we are excited about is front office real-time risk analytics on streaming market data, to decrease risk by informing traders in real time about potential changes to trading strategies, based on the most up-to-date data possible.

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Posted in B2B, Data Transformation, Real-Time, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Remote Data Collection and Transformation – with Ultra Messaging Cache Option and B2B Data Transformation

Sometimes when I drive past an electronic tollway collection sensor, I wonder about the amount of data it must generate. I’m no expert on such technology, but at a minimum, the RFID sensor has to read the chip in your car, and log the date and time plus your RFID info, and then a camera takes a picture to catch any potential violators. Now multiply that data times the hundreds of thousands of cars that drive such roads every day, times the number of sensors they pass, and I’m quite sure this number exceeds several million messages per day. (more…)

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Posted in B2B, Big Data, Data Aggregation, Data Transformation, Financial Services, Healthcare, Public Sector, Telecommunications, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Remove the Restrictor Plate with High Performance Load Balancing

Similar to the way that a carburetor restrictor plate prevents NASCAR race cars from going as fast as possible by restricting maximum airflow, inefficient messaging middleware prevents IT organizations from processing vital business data as fast as possible.

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Posted in Big Data, Business Impact / Benefits, Financial Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Operational Efficiency, Telecommunications, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Latency Matters, Even For Websites And Rich Internet Applications

In the past, the term latency has been largely ignored in the IT world, with the exception of network engineers and algorithmic trading experts. But today, there is compelling evidence that latency is an important metric for every business that runs a website, or that deploys Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), because even small delays in presenting data show a clear pattern of pushing customers and readers away.

Interesting data, replicated by multiple sources (including Bing, Google, and Amazon) show that slow-loading pages can cause the viewer to lose focus and potentially even click on something else, possibly never to return.

For instance, on search results, a delay of just .5 second chases away up to 20% of the traffic and revenue. As it says at this O’Reilly Radar post, “delays under half a second impact business metrics”.

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Posted in Customer Acquisition & Retention, Financial Services, Operational Efficiency, Public Sector, Telecommunications, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ultra Messaging Efficiency For Better Agility and Scalability

Our first post in this series on Efficiency covered the high-level performance benefits of super-efficient messaging software, whether you measure for latency or throughput, since efficiency is the property of software that provides performance. “Ultra-low latency” is just another term for extremely fast, lean, efficient execution. For more, see the post: Ultra Messaging is Also High-Throughput, High-Availability, Lower-TCO Messaging.

Our next post covered 24×7 availability, reliability and lower TCO from this efficiency. Less hardware and fewer software processes to touch the data in transit between applications provides these benefits. For more, see the post Ultra Messaging: For 24×7 High Availability, Lower TCO, and Robust Reliability.

This post discusses how the same Ultra Messaging efficiency that provides performance, reliability, and lower TCO also provides great agility and near-linear scalability. And with today’s Big Data challenges, especially in the capital markets, efficiency is more prized than ever.
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Posted in Business Impact / Benefits, Financial Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Operational Efficiency, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ultra Messaging: For 24×7 High Availability, Lower TCO, and Robust Reliability

Our first post in this series (Ultra Messaging Is Also High-Throughput, High-Availability, Lower-TCO Messaging) covered, from a very high level, the performance benefits of highly-efficient messaging software by stressing that efficiency is the property of software that provides performance, whether you measure a single piece of data for “ultra-low latency”, or a large batch of data for throughput. Either way, ultimately, it’s all about extremely fast, lean, efficient execution. The way you choose to measure that performance is up to you, and depends on your needs.

But extremely fast, lean, efficient execution has other benefits for the customer besides performance. For example, the same Ultra Messaging efficiency that provides very high performance also provides the foundation for many of the key features of enterprise-quality software, such as true 24×7 high availability, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and robust reliability. In the earlier post, we just touched on these topics, but here we will discuss them in a bit more detail.

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Posted in Business Impact / Benefits, Financial Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Operational Efficiency, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ultra Messaging Is Also High-Throughput, High-Availability, Lower-TCO Messaging

From fuel-efficient cars, to energy-efficient homes and office buildings, to saving time by shaving while reading Twitter on your smart phone and also making sure your kids eat their breakfast, efficiency is on our minds more and more today. And for very good reason.

Efficiency is one of the most sought-after qualities of any product or service, because it means more for your money compared to the competition, and therefore, more overall buyer satisfaction. The product works, it works well, it works when you need it, it doesn’t quit unexpectedly or too soon, and you would buy it again in the future. (more…)

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Posted in Business Impact / Benefits, Financial Services, Operational Efficiency, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Streaming Data Across The WAN – Important Design Considerations

Many companies today must send streaming data across the globe, quickly, which often means use of a shared resource: a WAN. Bandwidth for most WANs is usually restricted to something like 100Mb/sec, or even 10Mb/sec, which is often much slower than the high-speed LANs connected to either side of the WAN. This is especially true in the capital markets where ultra low latency messaging is key.

A link speed mismatch like this can present a problem. Say you’re running a 10Gb Ethernet LAN in New York, and sending data to London and Singapore over a 100Mb WAN link. While your streaming market data has an aggregate rate well below 100Mb, the spikes are many multiples of that aggregate rate. Those spikes are where your problems can begin. (more…)

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Posted in Big Data, Financial Services, Operational Efficiency, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Addressing Data Volume Growth With Better Efficiency

Friday August 5, 2011 set new records for trading volume around the world. According to this FT.com story: “The amount of data generated by the day’s trading in US futures and equities alone saw over 130m trades on Friday, generating 950 gigabytes of data, according to Nanex, a market data provider.” In London, “some exchanges with older technology could not cope”. And so Big Data strikes again.

But market data volume has been exploding for months, even years. This is just one more chapter in a long story, illustrating the types of problems that a business could encounter if they neglect their technical infrastructure in the face of data volume growth. (more…)

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Posted in Big Data, Business Impact / Benefits, Financial Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Healthcare, Operational Efficiency, Public Sector, Telecommunications, Ultra Messaging, Vertical | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

SIFMA 2011 Wrap-Up

Upon reflection after returning with the rest of the Ultra Messaging® team from the recently-concluded SIFMA 2011 Financial Services Technology Expo, these memories came flooding back . . .

  • Grow your business, not your infrastructure – We shared the latest news about our ultra low latency messaging products and how they help a business grow, including helping with Big Data problems and Risk and Compliance.
  • Latest and greatest – Along with EMC and Kaazing, we shared the latest about our synergistic technologies. Watch this Kaazing video to hear Mike Pickett, VP of Product Marketing for Ultra Messaging, discuss the synergies with Kaazing WebSockets and Ultra Messaging for scaling streaming message data out to mobile devices and other web applications. (more…)
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Posted in B2B, Big Data, Business Impact / Benefits, Data Transformation, Financial Services, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Healthcare, Informatica Events, Operational Efficiency, Public Sector, Telecommunications, Ultra Messaging | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment