FROM THE SIA SHOW: HyperFeed Focuses

HyperFeed Technologies (booth #1427) is going through a metamorphosis, and the company is eager to show the financial-services industry its new look at this year's Security Industry Association Technology Management Conference and Exhibit. The company -- originally known as PCQuote at its inception in the early '80s, when it was focused on providing market-data feeds similar to those of Comstock or Reuters -- is changing its model to become a software and services vendor whose core product is a ticker-plant solution.

HyperFeed's MEPS (Managed Exchange Platform Services) and H!box products are designed to support real-time market data, data management and data-reporting for use in delivering and receiving financial content. The software can be used with APIs, third-party applications or online desktop solutions.

"We deal with exchanges, market-data providers and institutions that are looking to get direct-exchange access in cases where they may need to feed program trading of some kind, or black-box or hedge-fund applications -- instances where timeliness of data and performance is really critical," says HyperFeed Chief Operating Officer Frank Guerrera.

He notes that if an institution goes through a consolidator, while the price may be lower, often the performance is slower. This is the case because the data must be gathered in a central point by the consolidator and then redistributed.

Guerrera says HyperFeed offers its services in a number of different models. First, the company has an off-the-shelf version of its ticker-plant product for which clients buy the software to run on their own hardware. Other models involve a client hosting the software on its hardware with HyperFeed maintaining and monitoring the system remotely, or alternatively, HyperFeed managing the solution at its own facilities.

HyperFeed also tries to present its customers with as much choice as possible when it comes to which data feeds they want and how they want to receive them.

"If they want fast data directly from an exchange, they can have that," Guerrera says. "Or maybe they want some other data from another market participant to come through a consolidator because they're not worried about latency, but they want to use the same platform as a normalization layer to look at the data."

The company is also actively working with partners like Savvis (booths #2100, 2101), which has taken HyperFeed technology as the basis for some of its solutions. Guerrera says Savvis is using HyperFeed DDU (Data Delivery Utility) technology, which helps Savvis execute on a one-to-many model, while still giving customers a choice about which feeds they want to receive.

The company is now directing its efforts in the areas of disaster recovery and business continuity, trying to position itself as a backup for some firms that are not ready to leave their current primary provider. Guerrera says, however, this approach is simply another way for HyperFeed to get its foot in the door and doesn't mean the company will be happy with second-class status.

He contends that many firms and exchanges have Triarch or Tibco infrastructures in place but are looking for more cost-effective alternatives. "What we want to offer is a ticker-plant solution where, basically, they can choose our technology with a mixture of direct or DDU or consolidated feed inputs to give them a backup solution," says Guerrera. "The longer term goal is for them to use us as a primary [data source]." <<<