Case study: Managing the ASX

Naturally, security is also a very important element of the ASX's overall management strategy. In fact, it's so important that Olsson was unable to go into any specifics about how it managed security for fear of compromising its efforts.

"Security is of course a major concern of ours especially when it comes to the Internet space, because it is tied directly to the integrity of the stock exchange," Olsson said.

Another interesting challenge that the ASX is now facing is how to integrate services provided by third parties into a management strategy.

For example, it was recently announced that the ASX would source virtual private network services from Optus.

"One of our challenges is that as we move to doing business globally, our trading network needs to be global as well. While we've been able to roll out our own national network, we're certainly not in the business of providing global network services. Consequently we looked to work with a partner who could deliver ASX data securely across a virtual private network," Olsson said.

"That presents an interesting challenge of how do you integrate that into an end-to-end management strategy?" Olsson said it was still in the process of developing a relationship that would allow that to happen. It has already begun trialling the VPN service and like any new system there have been early teething problems. These have been managed to date through close interaction between staff at Optus' network management centre and ASX's operational staff.

"In order to have one complete customer overview, it's going to require tools working together at both organisations," Olsson said.

Change management

However, it would be remiss to think that managing an IT infrastructure is just about tools.

Organisational processes are just as important in the management mix. For example, the ASX has very strict policies about how new technologies or new systems are to be incorporated into its environment.

"That kind of change management is absolutely critical," Olsson said. "If you introduce changes into your environment randomly or haphazardly, that's when the reliability of you systems starts to diminish."

"Everybody in the organisation from the analyst or programmer, to the operation staff to the technician, needs to understand the process of change management."

Indeed, Olsson believes that the entire IT industry needs to start thinking again about how it manages the rollout of new technologies and product.

"I think with the advent of the 'dotcom revolution' that speed-to-market became the prime goal and in some cases caution and processes suffered accordingly," Olsson said "I think when you do that you're jeopardising your chances of achieving the business objective, because you don't have the same quality controls in place."

Anyone who thinks end-to-end management is as simple as installing a new whiz-bang piece of management software is kidding themselves. As the ASX's experiences have demonstrated, integrating diverse platforms and technologies together is tough enough, but at all times organisational procedures also need to be considered as do relationships with third-party service providers.

However, Olsson is convinced the gain is worth the pain.

"My job is to deliver the greatest return on investment for our customers and shareholders and I think ultimately that's what this centralised management strategy will deliver."

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Originally a DEC shop (now Compaq), over the last five or six years the ASX has added new platforms as its server numbers have ballooned to more than 300. It now runs VMS, Solaris and Windows. On the network side it has more than 400 routers and switches from Cisco and Nortel. The ASX has developed a number of different trading applications and has recently invested significantly in its Internet presence. Indeed 10 to 20 per cent of its servers have been incorporated as part of its Internet environment. Meanwhile, its storage requirements and need for greater IO throughput have seen the ASX implement a cutting-edge storage area network from Compaq.

In order to manage such a heterogenous operating environment, the ASX has chosen to try and bring all these various components together under a single management platform. The ASX has invested heavily in Computer Associates' TNG Unicentre with that goal in mind and is currently in the process of integrating all its management data together under that platform.

"As the number of components have expanded dramatically over the last couple of years it has required more and more manpower to effectively manage the environment," Olsson said. "Even more critically though, it has made it difficult to achieve a holistic view of the infrastructure which you really need to have in order to be able to view the infrastructure from a business or customer perspective. "That's important because our aim is not to deliver technology, it's to deliver solutions to business problems. So what's important to me is not the uptime on any particular CPU, it's how consistently our systems are meeting our customer requirements," he said.

"That's what we've been able to achieve with our Unicentre implementation, we can look at 30 or 40 elements as one business-focused view of the infrastructure."

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That's not to say the ASX has achieved management Nirvana just yet. It has taken a phased approach to the implementation, beginning with integrating management data from all its disparate server platforms.

The next step is to tie in network data which is currently being managed through HP OpenView and from there it will integrate other elements like storage, security and so on. Of course, some elements will prove harder to integrate than others.

Olsson said the job of integrating its middleware platforms appears to be particularly complex as will tying in data from its storage area network.

Despite these difficulties, Olsson is convinced that an end-to-end management solution is the only way to go. By having that holistic view, not only does it support the business process but it also helps keep down the cost of maintaining and supporting the infrastructure, he said.

"I believe that while the unit cost price of various components may be decreasing, technology is becoming increasingly complex and as a result the cost of owning technology, and in particular the cost of maintaining technology is rising," Olsson said.

"In times like these, where there is an economic slowdown it's particularly difficult for industry to bear that burden. So if I can at least stabilise the cost of maintaining our technology infrastructure, that is a significant achievement, and I think the way to do that is through end-to-end management."

Olsson said the complexity of the ASX infrastructure, coupled with the need for most systems to be available on a 24-hour, seven-day basis meant that "without comprehensive monitoring systems we would require many multiples of the current support infrastructure".

"The use of centralised coordinated monitoring means that systems can be managed on an exception basis with fewer staff deployed in the data centre and a better use of resources overall," he said.

"These systems are never cheap, but at the end of the day they provide a much clearer picture end to end for the customer than distributed support staff trying to piece together all of the critical information from a straight-through processing operation."

The other benefit of having a thorough understanding of how your systems are operating is that, when it comes time to upgrade, you know exactly how much new capacity you will need.

It also becomes easier to plan upgrade strategies because being able to track data flows lets you forecast more accurately when you are going to need the additional muscle.

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The Australian Stock Exchange is not one of those organisations where the CIO or IT manager has to fight for board-level recognition and support.

There is a crystal clear understanding at the ASX, even at the highest levels of management, that technology is the lifeblood of the business. After all, the business only came to be when it was decided that Australia's various state-based manual exchanges should band together under a single electronic trading platform.

That was 14 years ago. Since then the ASX has poured many millions of dollars into the latest, cutting-edge hardware and software platforms, developing complex applications, building a state-of-the-art network and most recently forging an imposing Internet presence. Yet none of that investment would be worth tuppence if the technology couldn't be effectively managed. At the end of the day, it's not a brilliant system architecture or speedy installation that keeps things up and running, it's effective IT management solutions and processes.

The man responsible for that at the ASX is Jeff Olsson, general manger for production services. His is a daunting responsibility as the ASX is no ordinary IT shop. If any of the ASX trading systems even blink, it has the potential to cause chaos amongst Australia's financial community and could even blight the nation's economic reputation.

Yet market forces also require that the ASX sit uncomfortably close to the cutting edge, requiring it to constantly roll out new technologies to help it disseminate information and stay meaningful and competitive in what is an increasingly global environment.

"The most critical aspect of my role at the ASX is ensuring the integrity and reliability of our systems keep pace with the massive changes that the financial industry is undergoing at the moment," Olsson said.