Targeting Frenetic Trading Floors With Workstations
IBM's financial-services unit is introducing a rack-mounted pizza-box workstation with a flat-panel, 20.8-inch monitor for use on trading floors. The machines are designed to help IT departments centralize hardware, give traders more room, boost security, and shave energy costs.
The IBM IntelliStation R Pro workstation is just 1.75 inches high, and about the size of a pizza box. Up to 35 workstations can be stacked in a single rack in a remote location, reducing energy-sucking heat on the trading floor and providing greater security. Traders wouldn't have access to the machines' hard disks or CD-ROM drives, making it harder to accidentally introduce viruses.
The IBM T210 high-resolution monitor is more cost and energy efficient than ordinary monitors because it generates about 30% less heat. Flat-panel monitors also take up less desk space.
Flat screens allow companies to eliminate the tall, wide desks typically used on trading floors and "lets you put more desks in a closer space," says Larry Tabb, an analysts at financial-services research firm Tower Group. Rack-mounting the workstations frees IT support staff from having to crawl under a trader's desk to fix or update workstations. "Working under a trading station is like working under your sink," Tabb says. "There are wires and gizmos, and it's just not the easiest situation to work in."
We welcome your comments on this topic on our social media channels, or
[contact us directly] with questions about the site.
More Insights