Finding the Weak Link, and Forging a Stronger Connection: Olympia Capital Stays On-line with RGTS
With millions of financial transactions to process each day, Olympia Capital has very little margin for error. Hedge fund clients rely on the firm to calculate sales loads, commissions, advisory fees, operational expenses as well as net asset values and prices, and report them accurately and on time. Olympia’s telephone systems and Internet connections have to deliver the highest level of reliability to meet this challenge on a daily basis. But despite their best-laid plans, the realities of New York City’s crowded urban infrastructure often intrude.
Working Against the Clock
“We have some investors in Japan that need their statements at specific times every single night – so if we lose connectivity, we’re in big trouble,” says Erica Lay, who manages Olympia Capital's data environment. “Con Ed and Verizon often dig up their lines and accidentally cut our cable. And that puts us out of business until RGTS creates a work-around or until we can get it fixed. So I worked with RGTS to set up a fail over system that gives us redundancy in our Internet connection.”
“The idea was to have one line through RGTS and another through Savvis – two separate T1 lines. Then, if one goes down, the system automatically fails over to the other one.”
A Fail-Safe Plan vs. Murphy's Law
“It looked good on paper. But we found out “the hard way” how even a fail-safe plan like ours can go wrong. Because even though the lines were from separate providers and entered our building in separate places, the lines were joined up for the final 50 feet to our offices. And of course, that is exactly the place where Verizon accidentally cut a cable earlier this year.”
“Ultimately, our phones and T1 lines were down for about 48 hours. RGTS was able to provide us with three phone lines on an emergency basis, and I jerry-rigged a cable connection for limited internet access. But the important thing was that RGTS was able to identify this single point of failure and do something about it. They actually worked with the building management to get another truck line run into the building so that we can have two completely separate connections. And I can tell you, that was no small job. It involved getting permissions from and coordination with multiple players – the building owners, the utilities, even the City, because the street had to be ripped up. But RGTS made it happen.”
“And we haven’t had a problem since. They will actually call me and say, hey, one of your lines is down. And we won't even be aware of it, because everything just automatically switched over to our alternate line. And that makes my job a pleasure.”
