The Value of a Global Network: Q&A with Networking Expert Mike Abbey

By Eze Castle Integration | Tuesday, April 18th, 2017

With the gravitation towards all things cloud, understanding the role a global network plays in all layers of connectivity is crucial, especialy for the financial sector where firms rely on low-latency and seamless access to counterparties across the globe.

So, as we often like to do here on the Hedge IT blog, we turned to the experts.

Mike Abbey is the vice president of network services here at Eze Castle Integration. He joined the company in 1999 and is currently responsible for ECINet, our global carrier class network platform. Mike also provides design consulting and best practice audits on fault tolerance and scalable optical, Ethernet, and IP-based networks, from single and multi-site domestic networks to multi-site, global deployments. He is a graduate of Binghamton University.

Q. Mike, what are you hearing from clients regarding networking and Internet services?
A. To be honest, most hedge fund managers don’t have the time – and don’t necessarily want – to grapple with the complicated intricacies of securing and maintaining an enterprise-class network or Internet service. That’s where my team and I come in. We help simplify this process for our clients using Eze Castle’s ECINet global private network.

Q. Could you define “global private network” for our readers?
A. Sure. A global private network allows organizations to leverage a single service provider to enable their IT infrastructure, services and applications to communicate efficiently with one another. The network is secure, so managers can rest assured their critical information is protected at all times. For firms with multiple offices or data centers around the world, a global private network enables seamless communication and data transmission across all locations.

Q. What are some of the advantages of a global private network?
A. Investment firms derive a great deal of value from the global nature of these services. By leveraging a third party provider, funds don’t have to worry about managing the network themselves. Instead, the provider manages it all the way from the desktop to the data center. This complete end-to-end management allows for full visibility into the carrier network, enabling performance monitoring and troubleshooting without resulting in extra work for the fund.

Another advantage of leveraging a premier third party networking partner is that they can perform holistic reviews of connectivity and circuits, with last-mile carrier selection based on the most efficient path and greatest redundancy, inclusive of existing carrier networks that service the organization. For on-net locations, we can ensure rapid provisioning of additional bandwidth as soon as it is requested by the client.

With our ECINet service, we’ve ensured the ISP component of our offering is densely connected to peers and transit. This allows for optimal route performance, redundancy and high availability, resulting in an excellent user experience on the client end. We also have four Quality of Service queues that are available for efficiently transporting voice, video and interactive data services.

Q. What if something goes wrong, or a user experiences an issue with their network?
A. Your networking provider should provide resources that can assist with user questions or problems that may arise. Here at Eze Castle, our Global Support Desk team is available 24x7x365. The team is staffed with analysts who are equipped with expertise in specifically servicing the financial services vertical and its unique network requirements. They’re available via phone or email to help answer questions or mitigate any issues. My team of senior level network engineers is also available to all clients to assist with design and troubleshooting without having to navigate a lengthy escalation process.

ECINet is a global private network managed by Eze Castle Integration. It serves as the communications gateway for more than 400 buy-side firms, delivering highly secure and redundant Internet-based communications and direct cloud connectivity. ECINet features a full spectrum of Internet, private Ethernet circuit, MPLS, and VPLS service capabilities that meet the immediate and future needs of hedge funds and investment management firms.