NSE launches state-of-the art data centre

By: The WFE Focus Team Oct 2017

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recently launched a state-of-the art data centre. With this implementation, the NSE can now offer state-of-the-art, secure cloud services to both market operators and firms.

The data centre was commissioned by the Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu. It is consistent with NSE’s tradition of pioneering far-reaching innovations within the Nigerian Capital Market. The Honourable Minister commended NSE, saying: “I am pleased with the strides the exchange is taking in ensuring it is the best in Africa especially through technological innovations. Technology remains one of the drivers of growth for any economy, and I am impressed that NSE is at the forefront of adoption while partnering with other Nigerian companies.”

According to Ade Bajomo, Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology, NSE, the data centre provides a secure, reliable and advanced physical and technical environment for the exchange. “It comes with real-time monitoring of active devices, n+1 resistance of all critical components, 99.982% availability, uninterrupted power supply and market leading cloud hosting capabilities. Data is replicated in real-time offsite to a Tier III partner data Centre that is 25km away from the production site. These features place NSE’s services at par with the best exchanges globally.

“The NSE data centre allows the exchange to strengthen the adoption of digital techniques within its ecosystem, and provides our stockbroking firms with the option of hosting their infrastructure in a 24x7 highly available and efficient platform. At NSE, we strive to maintain 100% availability of all market platforms and have been very successful in this quest. Currently, 90% of all trades are also done outside the exchange, in a fully automated manner and the criticality of the data centre is key for market confidence and growth. Our data centre can currently host 50 clients but can scale up rapidly with demand,” he added.

Speaking on the sustainability aspects, Bajomo noted: “A significant aspect of data centre operating expenses is related to power usage and the need to be power efficient is critical. We have therefore chosen our components and cooling strategy carefully to conserve energy.”

The Nigerian Stock Exchange continues to take huge strides in the digitisation journey, and positions itself as a world-class exchange with best-in-class technology. In 2013, it launched X-GEN, the fastest trading platform in Africa with low latency capabilities. On the back of this, NSE implemented TradeSmart to assist its Dealing Member firms in achieving a broader reach, leveraging mobile phone penetration in the country. NSE has deepened its regulatory capabilities and facilitated the achievement of better compliance and monitoring by both issuers and operators, by implementing platforms such as X-ISSUER and X-BOSS. It also recently implemented X-Smart which brings an unprecedented level of surveillance technology into the market place, and has a number of market aligned innovative initiatives in the pipeline.