Slashdot Mirror

I don't think that's true. We have our own mapping technology. note, this doens't mean we may have used some Nokia stuff from time to time in one way or anohter. But bing maps isn't just re-packaged Nokia stuff.

I'm sure Bing maps info comes from more than one source, but there are only so many mapping providers in existence, and Navteq is the single biggest one - they also supply maps to e.g. Garmin and Magellan (for GPS units). The other two major players are Tele Atlas (used by TomTom in its GPS products and recently acquired by it, and also used by Google for countries where they don't have extensive StreetView coverage), and Google itself.

I'm not aware of any major mapping effort done by MS itself. Most of data seems to be coming from Navteq. Though it's not simple purchasing there, and more of a partnership - MS has also supplied information to Navteq (IIRC, for "street view" analog) as well as specialized hardware.

Note that there was also a very interesting related part of the recent MS-Nokia partnership announcement, which was repeated, worded slightly different, several times. Here's one from Nokia press release:

"Nokia Maps, for example, would be at the heart of key Microsoft assets like Bing and AdCenter"

and from the press conference itself (according to journalists, anyway):

"Microsoft will continue, and expand use of Navteq mapping services"

Err, by all accounts, Microsoft and Accenture partnered up to oversee TradElect's construction:

The new technology platform has been developed using the Microsoft .NET Framework, with support from Microsoft and Accenture, and marks the final phase of the Exchange's four-year Technology Road Map project. (emphasis mine).

I seriously doubt microsoft was involved in the development of tradelect. marketing in collaboration with accenture yes.

From an old Computer Weekly article
"Accenture built the Tradelect platform in India between late 2004 and March this year."

And from an old information age article, a classic Quote from the now departed IT Director:
"That was where Microsoft came in. We looked at their whole suite of technology from their development environment through to their databases and operating systems, and we decided that their technology was best aligned to achieving this range of design principles. We also found that they were willing to operate as true partners with us and to engage throughout the whole four-year programme rather than on particular components within it where there was potential revenue for them through licence sales. So we felt that not only did their technology stack up against the design principles, but they were genuinely able to act as a partner. They recognised at the most senior levels what we were trying to achieve here and that was important to us."

That's £40m over a short 2 years of service - work out the TCO on the depreciation cost alone! So, yes, I do think Microsoft has a lot to answer for because they were engaged at the highest levels. Also, Accenture have a lot to answer for. As soon as I saw "India", well, I'm sorry, but it's rare for an offshore project to meet requirements - in the same way that a project for Bank of India outsourced to the UK would probably fail.

It's worth a look at the Chi-X platform sales brochure (it's PPT, how ironic) which is a direct competitor to LSE and uses Linux successfully. Chi-X has about 15% or so of UK FTSE 100 trades. The amazing feature of CHi-X is its low latency - especially in trading where 20 ms is a very long time and can cost principals serious money.

It's not Windows vs Linux.

It's TradElect vs MarketPrizm, which happen to run on Windows vs Linux respectively.

Then again, TradElect was written by Microsoft and Accenture, so Microsoft where heavily involved in this project themselves - not just from the perspective of Windows only.

In addition, they touted this in their "Get The Facts" anti-Linux campaign, so I'm sorry, but pointing out this failure and blaming it on Microsoft (though perhaps not the Windows OS as such) is fair game IMO.

I mean, if a large and well-known consulting firm together with Microsoft themselves can't make a Windows-based framework perform, who can?

Nick Illidge Financial Markets Sales Manager at Microsoft UK "We are delighted that the London Stock Exchange has selected the Windows platform to base a significant part of its business on. This is further evidence of the enterprise scalability of the Windows franchise. We see our relationship with the Exchange and Accenture as a strong partnership. The Exchange is bold in its technology vision, Accenture provides the capability to deliver this vision, and Microsoft is providing the core technology to help provide the business benefits that the Exchange is looking for."

David Lester CIO at the LSE says ... that the LSE "is the only exchange in the world not to have had a single outage in six years."

"This is all about the question, 'How are we going to take over the world?'" says Lester, "... I believe this system -- because it's fast, agile and reliable -- will help us compete better. Our current system has to go down for four hours every evening to get ready for the next day's trading," he says. "The batch processing is '80s and '90s technology. You can't run a global market with a system that has to be down for four hours."

Here's a great factoid
Before joining the Exchange in 2001, David worked for Thomson Financial and Accenture.

Read this article that was linked from the link. Microsoft helped build this thing and its all Windows/.NET http://www.onwindows.com/Articles/LSE-TradElect-system-goes-live/843/Default.aspx

The new platform has been designed to the highest levels of resilience with comprehensive back up, which includes dual processing at two sites and recovery from component failure within a second.

from LSE TradElect system goes live , OnWindows.com, 18 June 2007