Legacy Modernization of Trading Platform

The client is a leading American brokerage and banking company.

Infosys has partnered with the client on trading platform modernization program. Key objective of the trading platform modernization program is to modernize the 40-year-old mainframe-based technology platform in order to simplify and improve flexibility, scalability and delivery.

An application with multiple logical layers created to decouple customer facing systems from mainframe and to enable faster response. Multiple transaction systems consolidated and applications which support key functionalities like entry, status, routing and posting were unified.

Key Challenges

Legacy systems written with elaborate COBOL code and processing use hundreds of legacy database structures
Systems have become overly complex and inflexible. Implementing new features were hence challenging
No ability to track transaction status from start to end and lack of auditing and tracking creates many risks
Application and data cache are tightly coupled on the same server box. Hence, cache and application cannot be scaled independently
Cache is deployed on virtual machines (VMs). It is a challenge to determine if all servers have exactly the same data at a given point in time

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The Solution

Leveraging Agile and Data Mining Approach

Open source NoSQL-based DB as data repository for all needs of the systems during trading time
Single and unified systems that will handle transactions from entry to execution, which will rely on NoSQL data
Suite of applications that will support risk management functionalities and rely on NoSQL data
DB2 as master data store that will be updated asynchronously
Developed various tools for data recovery from different data centers, compared data between data centers, error handling, and reprocessing to help business and operations support teams for quick resolution of customer complaints
Implemented SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) teams for supporting infrastructure and operational problems
Shadow mode development
- Developed production parallel shadow system to compare results between current versus shadow data, benefitting in terms of lesser defects and deployments in production environment
- Compare tools – Developed various data compare tools and techniques to compare between current versus shadow data
Agile / DevOps
- Development and release in smaller parts to reduce business risks
- Automated deployments
- Integrated tools like Veracode / SonarQube to provide cleaner code and reduce risk of deploying erroneous code
- Scriptless testing automation using TOSCA

Integrated Approach for Implementation Management

High performing REST services were written in Microsoft .NET platform and C#

Response time of services were reduced by:

Light weight services
NoSQL database
Customized business logic based on type of transactions

Developed libraries for common functionalities / logic which can be reused by several applications across the organization

All new functionalities and data were added to the modernized applications and DBs only. Business units requiring these changes were asked to migrate the specific set of customers to the new platform

In-flight / Regulatory projects / Production fixes changes were implemented in the legacy applications and DBs first. The changes were retrofitted to new applications and DBs once they were stabilized on the legacy side

Phased rollout approach to have a lesser impact on business

Thoroughly planned releases involving multiple teams and validation of systems during production rollouts to reduce risks during market open time

Blue-green deployments to reduce downtime and risk of the application by running two identical production environments

Integration with external tools like AppDynamics and Splunk to monitor and improve performance