STAC Opens Multi-Vendor Lab in Manhattan, Hires Ortega

Barclays market data veteran to build high-tech facility STAC announced today that it will open a New York branch of STAC Labs in July 2007 and has hired Miguel Ortega as Managing Consultant. The Manhattan-based facility will house a simulated trading environment where STAC and its customers can test innovative combinations of technologies—or technology “stacks.” The lab will include stacks for many areas of the trading process, including market data distribution, tick databasing, complex event processing, messaging, and order execution. In addition to the New York lab, STAC will continue to operate its existing lab in the Chicago area. Peter Lankford, STAC’s Director said: “STAC Labs are an important component of our strategy to accelerate the evaluation and adoption of new technology in the capital markets. We are getting strong support for this model from both vendors and buyers.” Competitive and regulatory trends place an imperative on securities firms to assess the potential of new technologies to reduce latency or increase capacity. But firms face numerous obstacles to assessment, such as inadequate tools, a lack of optimization expertise with new products, and logistical hurdles that make it cumbersome to bring new technologies in house. STAC Labs remove these obstacles by providing secure and conveniently located testing environments that are pre-stocked with the latest technologies from multiple vendors, STAC’s advanced tools, and performance experts ready to assist customers. To head the New York lab, STAC has hired industry veteran Miguel Ortega. Prior to STAC, Ortega was Manager of Market Data for Barclays Capital in New York. Ortega brings deep experience in Reuters and Wombat market data systems, high-speed messaging middleware, networking, and system integration. He holds a Masters degree in semiconductor design from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City. “Miguel has a reputation in the industry as an astute technologist who understands the needs of different trading businesses,” said Lankford. “And he knows what it means to have ultimate responsibility for performance. His experience will be very valuable to STAC’s customers.” Ortega said: “As a customer, vendors introduced me to new high performance technologies on a weekly basis. Doing hands-on evaluation of even a fraction of these was just not feasible. When I learned about STAC’s mission to simplify technology assessment for customers, I immediately saw the value. Now I am excited to join the cause.”