1. Microsoft SQL Server
Customer Solution Case Study
Currency Trading Database Hits Maximum
Uptime with Hybrid Cloud Solution
Customer: Caxton FX “The AlwaysOn feature in Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Website: www.caxtonfx.com
Customer Size: 65
Enterprise manages high availability and disaster
Country or Region: United Kingdom recovery needs for Caxton FX through a single solution.
Industry: Financial services
Partner: Interoute The system is up all the time.”
Mark Faithfull, Chief Technology Officer, Caxton FX
Customer Profile
Caxton FX is a privately owned foreign
exchange and international payments Foreign exchange specialist Caxton FX wanted a secure database
provider based in London in the United
Kingdom. It focuses on foreign exchange platform for its trading system, combining real-time replication,
deals, online currency transfers, and reporting services, and data warehouse capabilities. It chose
prepaid currency cards.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise data management
Software and Services software in a hybrid cloud configuration. It uses a cloud-based
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Microsoft SQL Server 2012 data centre managed by Microsoft Gold Partner Interoute, with
Enterprise replication to a second physical database at Caxton FX.
− Windows Server 2008 R2
Business Needs Kingdom Financial Services Authority—
Founded in 2001 and with an annual earn a reputation for excellence in
turnover of £700 million, Caxton FX customer care. In this competitive industry,
specialises in foreign exchange and technology is a key driver for both the
international payments transactions, as trading and analytical sides of the
well as analysis and reports on foreign business, which need support systems with
currency markets. It deals in both large high levels of performance, availability,
and small transactions—from its prepaid and security.
currency cards that offer fee-free travel
money to robust hedging strategies for Mark Faithfull, Chief Technology Officer,
multimillion pound deals. Caxton FX, says: “We wanted to run all our
reports and foreign exchange transactions
In a fast-moving business such as foreign on a single trading platform, which is up
For more information about other exchange, price and service have been the around the clock. For that to work
Microsoft customer successes, please visit:
guiding principles that have helped Caxton effectively, we needed a database platform
www.microsoft.com/casestudies
FX—which is regulated by the United for our replacement settlements and a

2. trading system that combined real-time availability and disaster recovery needs for application licences by deploying them
replication, reporting services, and data Caxton FX through a single solution. The on-premises or in the cloud.”
warehouse capabilities.” system is up all the time.”  Real-time replication keeps analytics
relevant. The real-time replication
To support its highly experienced foreign In addition, Interoute is designing the new feature of SQL Server 2012 means
exchange analysts, Caxton FX needed a infrastructure to ensure that Caxton FX can Caxton FX can run complex queries and
reliable platform through which analysts deliver the highest levels of security for its reports on the local reporting instance
could create their own self-service business currency trading and prepaid currency of the database. It is always up to date
intelligence reports. They needed to use card clients. and operates without compromising the
real-time financial data while having the online transaction processing
authority to query the data to discover Benefits performance of the trading platform.
business trends. Faithfull says: “Our aim was Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is providing  Cloud-based service delivers simpler
to build a solid platform for the future of Caxton FX with a reliable, cost-effective, systems management. Running the
the organisation.” low-maintenance database framework, trading platform in the private cloud at
supporting both process-intensive trades the Interoute data centre with
Solution as well as self-service reports for analysts, replication to Caxton FX has dramatically
Caxton FX decided to take advice from without experiencing any dip in improved the resilience of the solution.
Microsoft Gold Partner Interoute—formerly performance. With reduced licensing, In addition, there is no increase in IT
Quantix, which is now part of Interoute, the hardware and administration costs, Caxton costs compared to the previous
owner of Europe’s largest cloud services FX is building a strong business for the architecture.
platform. future.
Interoute proposed using Microsoft SQL  Hybrid configuration extends life
Server 2012 Enterprise with Windows Server cycle of IT assets. Caxton FX is
2008 R2 Service Pack 2 to support both the benefiting from the additional security
trading side of the business and the of running the trading platform in the
analysts. It includes features that will help private cloud at the Interoute data
Caxton FX scale and maintain performance centre, with real-time replication to a
as its business continues to grow and second database hosted within the
financial markets globalise. SQL Server 2012 Caxton FX internal cloud infrastructure.
runs on standard commodity hardware, As a result, it has avoided the costs
providing a low total cost of ownership, and associated with a major infrastructure
has the capacity to capture and process an project, while extending the life cycle of
increasing number of complex trades. the IT systems already in place.
 Licensing model cuts total cost of
Julian Boneham, Sales Director, Interoute, ownership. Caxton FX has a Microsoft
says: “We proposed a hybrid solution, Services Enterprise Agreement for low-
running the trading platform in the private cost volume licensing of software, which
cloud at the Interoute data centre. This also includes the Licence Mobility
involved real-time replication to a second feature of Software Assurance. Faithfull
database hosted within the Caxton FX says: “We wanted to take advantage of
internal cloud infrastructure, which is part of the new era of cloud computing, while
a data warehouse and real-time reporting continuing to extract value from our
service. The AlwaysOn feature in Microsoft existing IT assets. Licence Mobility helps
SQL Server 2012 Enterprise manages high us extend the value of our server
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS
SUMMARY.
Document published October 2012