Choice of OCI builds on firm’s earlier successful development
of real-time securities trading based on McObject’s eXtremeDB

(PRWEB) January 10, 2005 — McObject has chosen Object Computing Inc., a St. Louis-based software systems consultancy, as a McObject Solution Provider. Under the arrangement, OCI becomes a preferred provider of consulting and services for McObject’s eXtremeDB in-memory embedded database and related technology.



OCI’s role will include eXtremeDB integration, optimization and application development for McObject customers as well as database customization, porting, testing, and training, McObject President and Co-founder Steve Graves said.



McObject selected OCI as a Solution Provider in part for OCI’s expertise in key market segments and technologies, Graves said. “With deep experience in object-oriented technologies, and many successful client engagements in the aerospace, finance and telecommunications industries, OCI presents the ideal fit with McObject’s products and growing customer base,” he said.



The two firms’ relationship began, though, via an earlier OCI consulting project in which OCI ultimately credited McObject’s eXtremeDB with delivering a ten-fold performance increase, as well as enhanced reliability, for its client’s real-time securities trading application.



In spring 2004, a leading Chicago-based private securities firm that trades in multiple markets contracted with OCI to develop a high performance software library to support desktop trading.



The innovative architecture called for a shared information source with features – such as support for transactions and multi-user access – typically found in database management systems. Performance and reliability were paramount for this component.



Only an entirely memory-resident database could meet both the performance and reliability requirements for the project. Traditional databases with disk I/O, caching and related functions entailed too much processing overhead. In earlier projects, OCI implemented its own persistent in-memory data management, using a simple synchronized file system with logging to ensure recoverability.



However, for the new trading system, OCI sought to shorten its development cycle and enhance performance by adopting a proven off-the-shelf in-memory database system.



During its design investigation, OCI learned about McObject’s eXtremeDB in-memory database. eXtremeDB has been adopted for its real-time performance and reliability in applications ranging from telecommunications call routing to industrial process control. This track record, along with thorough testing, led OCI to select eXtremeDB for the desktop trading system.



“We were not disappointed. eXtremeDB exceeded our expectations,” said Kevin Heifner, principal software engineer for OCI.