Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, said IBF Futures is using the Nutanix Cloud Platform to offer customers an improved, more secure trading experience.

An arm of IBF Holdings, Taiwan-based IBF Futures provides a platform for international and domestic futures trading with services in eight foreign future exchanges including London, New York and Chicago. Investors are able to trade outside Taiwan and in different time zones. IBF Holdings began using Nutanix five years ago and extended the platform to IBF Futures in 2021. Nearly all IBF Futures transactions now run on Nutanix with the help from the consulting partner Acer AEB.   While versatile, IBF Futures needed to modernize its IT systems to streamline the customer trading experience. It sought to cut its reliance on physical machines and free-up space on premises, and in doing so reduce its carbon footprint. With stricter regulations from the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan, the company also needed to implement two-factor authentication. Its aims called for a flexible and scalable cloud-based platform.   Implementing Nutanix’s solution also helped IBF Futures make better use of resources by streamlining IT manpower and operations. The company’s workload has technically increased since implementation, but the size of the IT team has not changed. Nutanix Prism dashboard helped save IT personnel time on routine maintenance, it also offered insights which facilitated the process of customers opening new accounts. When demand is high, the dashboard indicates the need for more resources, prompting the front-end team to deploy more virtual machines to address customer requests.   Nutanix AHV made it possible to deploy VM applications within the space of approximately 30 seconds. The equivalent server deployment used to take at least one month. Also, Nutanix HCI helped deliver the rapid deployment of SMS one-time password system, a secure authentication method developed by IBF Futures to help customers enhance security.   The shift to Nutanix HCI makes it easy for the IT team to expand capacity according to transaction volume. It has also reduced total cost of ownership by saving 65 percent of storage and 95 percent of machine space, helping advance towards its ESG goal of achieving carbon neutrality.   “It’s our goal to become a leader of digital applications in the trading and financial industry,” said Chao-Hsin Liao, deputy general manager of IT at IBF Holdings. “Since adopting Nutanix’s services, we have saved significant time and manpower. As our business continues to scale over the next three to five years, Nutanix’s cloud platform will be key to helping us succeed. In this year’s second half, we plan to launch Cloud Strategy System, a service built on Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure. Users will gain access to historical transaction data on the platform that will support their investment decisions.”   “The regulations of the Financial Supervisory commission present financial services companies with the challenge of digitizing their data,” said Daniel Chang, managing director at Nutanix Hong Kong and Taiwan. “We are proud to be able to help IBF Holdings achieve this while addressing the security issue. We look forward to supporting more financial service companies as they look to elevate their online services.”