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September 10, 2008
London Stock Exchange confirms network software caused costly outage
LSE says it does not blame TradElect supplier Accenture
By Leo King, ComputerworldUK
A network software problem was behind Monday’s disastrous system crash at the London Stock Exchange.
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But the LSE said it would not point the finger of blame at Accenture, which built its crucial TradElect platform. It said TradElect was not at the source of the problem.
Trading was stopped on Monday until the final half hour of activity, after a connectivity problem meant the LSE was forced to take all traders offline until the system was rectified, with only 30 minutes’ trading left in the day. The LSE has begun an investigation into the cause of the problem, but has not disclosed any more information.
Angry traders had walked out of the building in protest, unable to conduct business on what would have been one of the best days for the market as stocks rallied after the bail out of US mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
An LSE spokesperson told Computerworld UK the problem was related to network software, and not the LSE’s key TradElect platform. He also said that an undisclosed “fix” had been applied to the software and that the LSE was “confident” the systems would now function properly.
“Two particular software activities” had taken place, causing the problem, the LSE admitted. But it categorically refused to disclose any more information.
Last year, it moved IT management in-house and away from supplier Accenture.
But Accenture still provides software development services to the exchange, and built the LSE’s TradElect platform, which the exchange said was not the cause of the problem. The platform runs on HP ProLiant Servers and Microsoft .Net and SQL Server systems.
Accenture would not comment, and referred all queries to the LSE.
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Comments received
bit weaver 77 said on Saturday, 13 September 2008
Interesting that it is classified as "network software" ... i.e. not a problem with the application, but most likely with the Windows Server Platform network stack. You can be sure if it wasn't a Windows problem, Microsoft would have stepped in to make that quite clear.
Girth said on Monday, 15 September 2008
You can be sure if it wasn't a Windows problem, Microsoft would have stepped in to make that quite clear.
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Funny how the issue came about after management of the product was taken in-house.
If the LSE will not disclose the source of the issue, Microsoft can not speak to the issue in any manner, especially if the app was originally architected by Accenture. In no way can the software be attributed with the blame if it has been either badly architected or managed.
Get Real said on Friday, 19 September 2008
1. Designing a system of this magnitude to be run on Windows platform is, IMHO, architectural idiocy.
2. Designing a system that lacks enough redundancy to recover from a single network software failure is also not very bright.
Cheers
Get Real said on Friday, 19 September 2008
1. Designing a system of this magnitude to be run on Windows platform is, IMHO, architectural idiocy.
2. Designing a system that lacks enough redundancy to recover from a single network software failure is also not very bright.
Cheers
Get Real said on Friday, 19 September 2008
1. Designing a system of this magnitude to be run on Windows platform is, IMHO, architectural idiocy.
2. Designing a system that lacks enough redundancy to recover from a single network software failure is also not very bright.
Cheers
Animesh said on Thursday, 25 September 2008
At least we won't see Microsoft Big banner ads -> "Switch to Microsoft Server 2008" Crap for High Uptime and reliability.
Franklin Raines said on Monday, 29 September 2008
That's what you call "Experiencing the Wow!"