Sun Sees Significant Momentum of Grid Computing in Financial Industry
with CDO2 and Markit Running on Sun Grid
Sachsen Among First Banks to Realize Unparalleled Transaction Time when Running Financial Risk Simulations on Sun Grid
Santa Clara, 22 March 2006
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:
SUNW), today announced that CDO2, a provider of innovative pricing and
risk technology for organizations trading structured credit products, is
using the Sun Grid Compute Utility to power robust risk simulation
services. CDO2, in conjunction with Markit Group Limited, is using Sun
Grid to serve customers in the financial services industry, including
the bank Sachsen LB Europe plc. Sun Grid helps customers and partners
derive immediate benefits from an open, grid-based computing
infrastructure on a pay-per-use utility basis that enables Sun's
partners and customers to deploy technical applications, accelerate
innovation and speed time to results without having to invest in
expensive infrastructure.
Sachsen LB Europe plc, a subsidiary of an East German Landesbank, uses
CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid to manage its customers' portfolios of
Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) totalling more than 1 billion
Euro. Sachsen first went live on Sun Grid in December 2005 with just 10
central processing units (CPUs) per hour. As Sachsen is now able to run
more complex risk simulations through Sun Grid's reservation-based
system for compute power continues to grow, the company is able to enjoy
a quick turnaround running calculations at 100 CPUs per hour with all
systems management powered by Sun and CDO2. Sachsen now gets independent
pricing models and performs risk analytics using CDOSheet powered by Sun
Grid - delivering a significant business benefit to the bank.
"Prior to choosing CDO2 on Sun Grid, we were forced to run spreadsheets
for hours to get critical financial figures, with no capability to run
risk simulations," said Christopher Nolan, Head of Structured Credit
Products at Sachsen LB Europe plc. "Now we can generate the same figures
more accurately in minutes and perform a detailed risk analysis of our
CDO portfolios. CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid has given us a significant
competitive advantage - making available a new class of complex
financial simulations so we can make critical business decisions more
quickly."
CDO2 and Markit Light Up the Sun Grid
CDO2 commenced work in May 2005 on the first Sun Grid utility service.
The initial Sun Grid capability was available only under contract with
Sun. Today, Sun announced Internet access of a pilot release of Sun Grid
to United States users at www.network.com. Portal access is expected to
be available in the United Kingdom within six months.
"The massive, on-demand compute power available through Sun Grid has
enabled us to deliver to our customers significant time-to-market and
cost savings previously unavailable without purchasing an entire IT
infrastructure," said Gary Kendall, director, CDO2. "By combining our
innovative pricing and risk technology with Sun Grid, customers are on a
level playing field with larger banks by being able to access the
highest quality of CDO pricing and risk infrastructure on a utility basis."
"Markit's benchmark pricing is widely used for the price verification of
complex structured products which require advanced systems to support
client's pricing and risk management processes," said Mark Hunt,
director of product development at Markit Group. "Markit's data,
integrated with CDO2 and Sun's innovative compute grid, addresses the
needs in this complex area and we are delighted to be working with them."
"Sachsen and other financial institutions are realizing a competitive
advantage from faster and more efficient access to financial simulations
and information, thanks to CDO2 and Markit technologies on Sun Grid,"
said James Powell, vice president financial services, Sun Microsystems.
"Sun Grid offers customers a new way to purchase and access secure and
scalable compute resources at an affordable price. The financial
industry, along with the oil and gas, scientific and education
communities, are helping lead the way for other industries to realize
the benefits of Sun Grid in a high performance computing environment,"
said Aisling MacRunnels, senior director, utility computing, Sun
Microsystems.
About CDO2
CDO2 is a provider of innovative pricing and risk technology for
organizations trading structured credit products. The company was
founded on the belief that all financial organizations should have
access to the latest pricing models and enterprise technology,
irrespective of their size or trading volume. More information on CDO2
can be found at www.cdo2.com.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- guides Sun in the
development of technologies that power the world's most important
markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities
is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation
Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at
sun.com
About CDOSheet Powered by Sun Grid
CDOSheet powered by Sun Grid is the first Software as a Service Partner
Solution on Sun Grid. Users are able to harness the power of utility
computing to price and risk manage CDO and CDO squared tranches via the
internet using simple spreadsheet functions.
About Markit Group Limited
Markit is the leading industry source of independent pricing and valuations for the global financial and energy markets. Markit has data contributed by over 50 dealing firms, and its services are used by 400 institutions globally. Areas of product expertise include OTC derivatives (credit, equity, FX, rates, inflation, energy, power, metals and structured products), corporate bonds, syndicated loans, dividend forecasting, and index and ETF management. More at www.markit.com