The New York and American stock exchanges both announced earlier this week they would use an IBM mainframe running Linux to send daily activity reports, via email, to brokers. However, an ASX spokesman said the Australian exchange did not send such reports, and that the ASX did not comment on moves made by other exchanges.
No reports have emerged on whether the US exchanges plan to switch to Linux for other systems, such as automated trade processing systems. A US exchange spokesperson was reported as saying the shift to Linux was an experiment in possibilities of cost reduction.
The ASX concerned investors this week by reporting a profit drop of AUD$2.6 million since the previous financial year.
The US exchanges' move to implement Linux represents one of the first examples of the financial services sector embracing the open source environment. The operating system has historically been disregarded by high-end corporate IT users, due to its popularity with less formal Internet bodies, such as subversive discussion forums and hacker groups.
The IBM mainframe was designed to emulate a cluster of Linux systems operating together. Costs of IBM mainframes start at US$150,000 (AUD$300,000) but can be as high as millions of US dollars. However, unlike other operating systems, platforms based on the Linux kernel are free to run.
I wonder what their IT budget is?
Can they afford the higher insurance premiums for the insecure and unreliable Windows platform?