Prospering In A Tough Market

By Author: Guy Matthews
Total Articles: 16
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The UK's major companies are the engine room of the nation's economy, particularly those in the financial services sector. The ability of our large financial institutions to compete in what is a tough global marketplace is vital to the economic wellbeing of the whole country.

In today's world the competitiveness of all these players is increasingly dependent on the provision of secure, reliable high-speed network capacity, allowing transactions to complete at the speed of light and rich data to flow smoothly over long distances.

The truth is that not all networks are the same. Not all are of equal quality, not all offer the same level of resilience or route diversity and very few offer customers the ability to have a network designed for them which is specific to their needs.

If a company is sharing its network capacity with others, and the route that the network follows is the same as other networks, then it is difficult to ensure that the network is fit for its particular requirements, sufficiently secure or will provide continuity of service in the event of disaster.

Investment banks, stockbrokers ...
... and funds need the ability to process market updates and turn around orders within milliseconds. Their very profitability depends upon their ability to react to market events faster than the competition This means they need a network that offers latency that is as low as possible.

Further, financial services regulations in the US and UK are forcing many organisations to look at increasingly secure networking and data centre solutions based and backed-up in sites well away from their own major offices.

Current Services

Most network services for banks and others in the UK have historically been provided by either BT plc or the various altnets created over the last 15 years. These companies have all adopted the approach of lighting their own networks with a particular type of network equipment and then selling capacity-limited and inflexible services on short-term contracts. These packages offer the customer no real control, scalability, upgrade path or security and are subject to frequent service disruptions.

Some large financial institutions have tried to give themselves the kind of bespoke flexible network they require by procuring private networks to maintain performance and maximise speed of transactions. But leased lines from a traditional telco are very expensive and very few are willing to provide access to the underlying optical fibre.

Banks and investment houses are now increasingly considering owning their own dedicated fibre-based solutions to provide long-term solutions to these problems. They are taking the idea of the private network one step further by owning and controlling the critical infrastructure they need rather than leasing it.

If it is based on the right assets, away from likely sources of damage and disruption, ownership of a dedicated optical fibre network solution is the best way for institutions to guarantee the uptime they need. With the right choice of fibre routes an organisation can now own its own critical platform and ensure greater diversity in the routes taken by its critical data traffic and therefore ensure far fewer instances of loss of service.

Geo's Answer

Geo designs and builds bespoke data networks based on dedicated fibre.

These offer far superior levels of network security and diversity. Geo's national network runs on a completely separate route from other networks next to the country's national gas mains pipeline. In London its Geo.Metro network is deep down in Thames Water's sewer system, well away from other networks and from street level which is subject to frequent disruption from utilities and other network owners. For many months, Geo has not suffered a single network outage anywhere on either its national or London networks.

Geo's solutions are also fundamentally more flexible and secure because they are based on the lease of an end to end resilient fibre platform. Every Geo network is based on a pair of optical fibres dedicated to each customer's sole use. Both at the point of installation and for future upgrades, Geo's customers control what capacity and functionality they require - not the other way round.

Geo can offer the very highest speeds and lowest latency network solutions thanks to its unique bespoke design service. As Geo is not wedded to any one type of equipment, it can work with its customers to determine the most appropriate transmission solution for their requirements to get the most out of their fibre platform - on Day One and into the future.

Finally, Geo's network is ideally placed to deliver services to the critical data centre locations throughout the UK for the provision of very fast and highly secure services. Geo's teams of design consultants, engineers and project managers are expert in the provision of best-fit solutions to existing and entirely new locations.

All of this can be offered with a significantly lower total cost of ownership than repeatedly buying in bundled service packages from telcos - giving our financial service customers the certainty of cost which they expect in all other areas of IT service provision and a high quality solution to allow them to focus on their own businesses.