Off late Windows has gained reputation as one of the most unreliable system to build critical software. It is also prone to virus attacks and is a favorite target of hackers around the world. This belief was reinforced when all activities at London Stock Exchange (LSE) came to a standstill after its Windows-based TradElect system allegedly had a problem. TradElect was created by Microsoft and Accenture with the goal to maintain sub-ten millisecond response times, real-time system speeds, for stock trades. It is a blend of C# and .Net programs and runs on HP ProLiant servers, Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as the back-end. TradElect could not deliver the performance of its rival Chi-X with its MarketPrizm trading platform software, built on Linux.

Although LSE didn’t confirm the failure of TradElect, they didn’t deny it either and refused to divulge any further information. The CEO of LSE, Clara Furse had to bear the brunt of this failure, as she was the one who insisted on using this Windows-based system for LSE. She resigned from the post shortly after that and Xavier Rolet took charge as the CEO. Soon after taking charge, he immediately decided to put an end to the unreliable Windows-based TradElect system. LSE seems to be the only company to have publicly dumped an infrastructure software and its still not clear how many other companies have done this in the past. In the mean while, Chi-X with its Linux base seems to be working wonders for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to name a few. Hopefully, LSE will consider this after the massive failure of TradElect.

[ComputerWorld]