Benchmark Results: SQL Server 2008 R2 Provides Enterprise-

Class Performance and Scalability for Misys Opics Plus

Running on an NEC Server with Intel Xeon Processors

Solution Brief

As the financial market continues to globalize,

and as the financial industry becomes more

competitive, organizations are looking to increase

their margins through the ability to swiftly and

accurately capture and process complex and

structured trades. Financial organizations face

several challenges: they must support a wide

variety of treasury instruments and handle

increasing trade volumes, and they need a

credible platform.

Misys helps financial organizations respond to

these business challenges with Misys Opics Plus

3.1. Opics Plus is the new .NET Smart Client

release of Misys Opics, the comprehensive

solution for front-to-back office cross-asset

processing of a wide range of financial

instruments. In a single system, Opics Plus

handles vanilla and complex derivatives, fixed

income, and equity and treasury trades. Opics

Plus provides unparalleled integration across

financial instruments and across the different

departments of a financial institution.

Misys is a key Microsoft Capital Markets partner

and a Microsoft Strategic Global ISV in the

financial services industry. Misys and Microsoft

work closely together to build mission-critical

solutions for financial services and capital markets.

With each major release of Opics Plus, Misys

conducts rigorous benchmarking tests with

Microsoft to evaluate scalability and performance.

This technical brief describes the results of

benchmark testing performed June 2011.

Overview of Opics Plus Misys Opics Plus is a fully integrated core

treasury, capital markets, and derivatives software

solution that processes transactions from deal

capture through settlements and accounting. A

Microsoft Innovator Award–winning solution,

Opics Plus is designed on a single service-

oriented architecture (SOA) platform. Opics Plus

delivers flexible customization features for

business reengineering and fine tuning, along

with high levels of Microsoft-endorsed and client-

benchmarked scalability.

Opics Plus 3.1 has been designed completely on

the Microsoft .NET 3.0 framework. The n-tier

architecture and reengineered server-based

processing gives the system a significant

performance and scalability advantage over

previous versions.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Provides

Performance, Scalability, and Value

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise is a

comprehensive, integrated, and enterprise-ready

data management software solution. It provides a

reliable, cost-effective, low-maintenance database

framework for Opics Plus that can support the

largest and most process-intensive deployments.

Hundreds of enterprises are currently running 10-

terabyte (TB) and larger transactional databases

on SQL Server.1

With SQL Server, Opics Plus customers can save

with reduced licensing, hardware, administration,

and support fees, which translate into

substantially lower costs over the system's life.

Benefits of the Intel Xeon Processor

7500 Series

Designed for large-scale deployments and

mission-critical applications, the Intel Xeon

processor 7500 series delivers outstanding results

for SQL Server and Opics Plus customers,

including scalable performance and advanced

reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS)

benefits that add dramatically to the value of the

overall solution.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Partner Profile: Misys

Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L) provides

integrated, comprehensive solutions that

deliver significant results to financial

services organizations. Misys maximizes

value for customers by combining a deep

knowledge of their business with a

commitment to their success.

Misys is a market leader in the banking

and treasury and capital markets, with

more than 1,200 customers, including all

of the world’s top 50 banks. Misys

employs around 3,500 people who serve

customers in more than 120 countries.

Misys aspires to be the world’s best

application software and services

company, delivering results for the

financial services industry throughout the

world.

Partner Application: Opics Plus

Misys Opics Plus is a comprehensive

solution for front-to-back office cross-

asset processing of a wide range of

financial instruments. In a single system,

Opics Plus handles vanilla and complex

derivatives, fixed income, and equity and

treasury trades. Opics Plus provides

unparalleled integration across financial

instruments and across the different

departments of a financial institution.

For more information about Misys Opics

Plus, please visit: www.misys.com

MISYS: EXPERIENCE, SOLUTIONS, RESULTS

1 http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/docs/06-30-

09EnterpriseDatabaseManagementSystems.pdf

www.misys.com

www.misys.com

www.intel.com

Benefits of NEC Express5800/A1080a

Taking advantage of a heritage of world-class NEC supercomputers

and mainframes, the NEC Express5800/1000 series of servers

represents the fifth-generation in the NEC family of highly expandable

mid-range and enterprise server platforms

Benchmark Testing Setup Emulates Real-World Scenarios

As part of their partnership, Misys and Microsoft worked together to

execute benchmarking tests in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering

Center (EEC) labs in Redmond, Washington. The goal of the testing was

to demonstrate the scalability, performance, and cost efficiency of

using Opics Plus 3.1 with SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise on the

Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system by replicating the demands

of a tier-1 financial organization. The tests were run on commodity

hardware to simulate a realistic cost of ownership.

Opics Plus performance was measured with two parameters:

responsiveness and scalability. Goals were set based on client feedback

about future performance requirements and on the results of earlier

benchmark testing. These goals represent the typical requirements of

major financial organizations.

Benchmarking Test Scenarios

Tests were conducted to analyze system performance and scalability by

measuring user interface response time and interface throughput using

the messaging service.

• User Interface Simulation

The first part of the benchmarking test was designed to measure the

user interface response time for FX Spot/Fwd deals across multiple

currency pairs.

The user interface simulation tests were performed using Microsoft

Visual Studio 2010 Load Tests. The test scripts were designed to

measure the round-trip duration for each request and were

configured to simulate different sets of users.

• Interface Through the Messaging Service

The second part of the benchmarking test measured the

performance of the FX Spot/Fwd interface performance by

interfacing records into Opics Plus through the messaging service.

Legacy interface tables (INTH, IFXD) were used in the test.

Following are details of the hardware and software used.

Hardware and Software Details

Server Hardware Software

Database server HP BL680-G5 (2.4 GHz,

24 core, 128 GB RAM)

Windows Server 2008 R2

SQL Server 2008 R2

Web/application

server

NEC5800 (2.3 GHz,

32 core, 262 GB RAM) Windows Server 2008 R2

File server HP BL680-G5 (2.6 GHz,

8 core, 8 GB RAM) Windows Server 2008 R2

Queue server HP DL580-G5 (2.93 GHz,

16 core, 73 GB RAM)

Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Message

Queuing

The benchmarking tests were performed in a single-application server

environment, as shown in the figure that follows.

Benchmark Testing Setup

Benchmark Results Confirm Performance and Scalability

of the Opics Plus/SQL Server Solution

The benchmark testing results exceeded the test goals, confirming that

Opics Plus on SQL Server and Windows Server is a highly scalable and

responsive system capable of meeting the needs of large financial

organizations, as shown in the following table.

Benchmark Testing Results

Type of Test Benchmark Results Goal Results

User interface

simulation

Response time of an FX

Spot/Fwd deal with STP <0.25 sec

0.06 sec

(200 users)

Interface

throughput using

the messaging

service

Total FX Spot/Fwd deals

per second

>50

deals/sec

64.49

deals/sec

Summary

The results clearly show that Opics Plus 3.1 running on SQL Server 2008

R2 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 R2 can handle the demands of

major financial organizations. In addition, Opics Plus customers can

save with reduced licensing, hardware, administration, and support fees,

which translate into substantially lower costs over the life of the system.

More Information

www.microsoft.com