This major financial services organization needed to access real-time data and scale its IT infrastructure to keep up with the fast-paced market. Its batch-oriented approach and reliance on relational databases created bottlenecks. Implementing Pivotal GemFire's distributed data platform allowed the organization to run risk calculations 60 times faster, react immediately to changing conditions, and scale virtually on demand. This helped the organization remain competitive through speed and agility.

1. The financial services industry is fast moving and highly
competitive. The market can change in an instant. Being aware
of sudden movements in the market, and having the ability
to react accordingly, are two of the biggest challenges facing
financial organizations today. For this major multinational
financial services organization dealing with corporate, private
and retail investments and holding many thousands of portfolios,
ensuring it has access to real-time data and a scalable, flexible
and reliable IT infrastructure are paramount.
CHALLENGE
Looking for compute power and scalability
Over the last ten years, this financial services institution
developed a comprehensive suite of applications tailored
specifically to its needs. Complex algorithms and modeling
software developed in-house are critical in managing customer
deals from initial pricing to managing risk. For these processes
to work efficiently, having access to real-time data and keeping
that information updated at all times is essential. But, prior to
deploying Pivotal GemFire, this became a real challenge for the
bank. A batch-oriented approach to calculating risk at specific
times of the day for all portfolios was no longer enough to stay
at the forefront of this fast-paced industry.
At the same time, while the bank had access to some of the
most innovative and sophisticated financial technology products
on the market, the underlying IT infrastructure created many
problems. Relational databases were bottlenecks that hindered
the simultaneous distribution of data to thousands of clients. The
company needed a solution to this problem which could provide
extra compute power and on-demand scalability while remaining
cost-effective.
AT-A-GLANCE
Challenges
• Competitive and fast-changing financial
services market
• Batch-oriented approach too slow
• Need for more compute power and
greater scalability
Solution
• Pivotal GemFire
Key Benefits
• Increased Data Processing Speed – 60x faster
• Greater Scalability
CASE STUDY
Major Financial Institution
STRENGTHENING COMPETITIVENESS WITH SPEED AND SCALABILITY
OVERVIEW
“ Pivotal GemFire has dramatically improved the
speed with which we can react to changing market
conditions. We can now manage risk in real-time,
and run calculations 60 times faster than ever
before – all of which has made a major impact on
our business.”
— CTO, leading financial services organization
pivotal.io

2. Pivotal is a registered trademark or trademark of Pivotal Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2014 Pivotal Software, Inc.
All rights reserved. This document was originally published in 09/11 and is being republished with limited, non-substantive updates in 10/13. Published in the USA. PVTL-CS-330-11/13
At Pivotal our mission is to enable customers to build a new class of applications, leveraging big and fast data, and do all of this with the power of cloud independence.
Uniting selected technology, people and programs from EMC and VMware, the following products and services are now part of Pivotal: Greenplum, Cloud Foundry, Spring,
GemFire and other products from the VMware vFabric Suite, Cetas and Pivotal Labs.
CASE STUDY MAJOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTION
Pivotal 3495 Deer Creek Road Palo Alto, CA 94304 pivotal.io
SOLUTION
Pivotal GemFire provides power and agility
To improve these processes, the bank undertook an IT
infrastructure transformation project with Pivotal GemFire
at the heart. Pivotal GemFire, a distributed data management
platform, provides dynamic scalability, high performance and low
latency – enabling the bank to realize substantial performance and
efficiency gains.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
Pivotal GemFire delivers the following business benefits:
Increased Data Processing Speed
“Pivotal GemFire enabled us to move from batch calculations
to a continuous real-time evaluation of risk, which means we
now run risk calculations 60 times faster,” says the bank’s CTO.
“Calculations that previously took hours now take minutes and
those that used to take minutes, now only take seconds. We can
react immediately to changing market conditions, meaning we
stay ahead of the game.”
Greater Scalability
Using Pivotal GemFire, the bank has eliminated the bottlenecks
inherent in the relational database model by moving to a more
agile and flexible virtual environment. Previously, a central server
would struggle to provide data to thousands of customers. Now,
Pivotal GemFire’s horizontally-scalable virtual servers can be
added whenever they are needed, instantly creating the extra
capacity required to eliminate any performance delays.
CONCLUSION
By delivering on the promise of compute power and scalability,
Pivotal GemFire has enabled the bank to remain competitive in
this aggressive and constantly changing industry.
“Pivotal GemFire has radically improved two of the key areas of
our business – pricing and risk management,” the bank’s CTO
concludes. “Because our data is always up to date, and because
we can handle the high volume of calculations required for our
customers, we believe we are as well prepared as we can be to
thrive in a fast-changing and competitive market.”
LEARN MORE
To learn more about our products, services and solutions, visit us
at pivotal.io.
“ Pivotal GemFire has radically improved two of the key
areas of our business – pricing and risk management.
Because our data is always up to date, and because we
can handle the high volume of calculations required for
our customers, we believe we are as well prepared as
we can be to thrive in a fast-changing and competitive
market.”
— CTO, leading financial services organization