Choosing BSO: A Trusted and Proven Partner for Hosting Mission-Critical Applications_

Scope Markets required a hosting partner for hosting our mission-critical applications inside London’s Equinix LD4. As a financial services provider offering access to global FX products hosting in the prestigious LD4 is the only venue of choice due to its standards and connectivity options. Some clients only want to trade with Scope Markets if they know our hosting facility is provided via LD4. Our business depends on low latency dedicated connectivity to our pricing technology providers PXM and OZ and hosting in LD4. We can get direct X-Connects that offer guaranteed connectivity and resilience to our pricing partners.

Why BSO?
Scope Markets went to the market initially to an alternative hosting provider called 'Hive Hosting', exploring the need for service offerings and costs. Hive came back with a pretty solid proposal at a competitive price. 

But for these applications, as they are mission-critical, you want to ensure the partner of choice that understands the industry sector, how they operate as clients in the FX world,  and what they expect. Selecting a brand new company that hasn’t done this in our industry worried the customer that they still have to go through the learning phase. That phase is costly and can result in reputational damage for an FX broker like them.

Working with BSO, they have been providing connectivity and recently hosting in our business sector for a long time and have a proven track record of understanding how we work. Historically, we have worked with BSO on successfully implementing a dedicated connection between LD4 and the UAE for an integration exercise with the DGCX exchange. And another complete private cloud solution for another FX Broker company I used to work for, and the project was a huge success. However, it was not without errors or issues, but the learning phase has been completed, and the shared lessons learned would be a great advantage for the new Scope Markets public cloud.

Working with Chris and the BSO team on the proposal was an easy task as we know what we need to buy, and BSO now understands the infrastructure setup and deployment for an FX broker, so completing the proposal was easy. Once we completed the recommendations, the offering needed to go under review from legal teams on both sides to ensure the MSA and service order was all in hand, and both parties were mutual beneficiaries of the proposed arrangement. This was all secured with a robust SLA that was reviewed item by item in meticulous detail, along with the compensation schedule for not meeting the SLA. BSO was accommodating in the client's request around the SLA to ensure we have something that adds value and something I can put in front of a regulator or auditor who often requests evidence that our third parties or hosting providers are assured with an enforceable SLA.

Other hosting providers (larger and smaller) would not be so open to negotiations around the SLA and would be more rigid about what they will provide. Still, BSO has helped us get to a contract, MSA, SO and SLA that gives us the appropriate level of cover we require and a financial services provider.

The cloud support team at BSO know what they are doing. They have proven this with the previous deployment I worked on with them, and the feedback I hear on this deployment running is now very positive. The cloud solutions team knows how to deploy the required infrastructure and what we expect regarding project management and service delivery as a client. They have the technical expertise and industry knowledge to deliver hosting and networking, and security solutions for the fintech space.

BSO is a long-standing company with a solid history and slough incorporated in the UK, has a truly global reach and presence and is respected in the market. Trust in the brand is another key deciding factor for us, and BSO has strong industry recognition and presence. BSO is a large company, but face-to-face interaction with its customers of a much smaller company helps improve communications and breaks down missed communications.

Connectivity is another crucial factor, and placing my private cloud hosting alongside my global connectivity partner creates a synergy that will be tough for any other hosting provider to compete against because, end to end, the total solution is managed under a single company that understands all the complexities between the infrastructure and application layers.

Price: all decisions have to factor in costs, pricing and budgets. I already had a great understanding of the costs in the marketplace, and I had previously performed market research to identify the cost in the marketplace. Working with Chris and BSO, I provided Chris with a target budget. Chris came back with an honest approach on making this number work so it's mutually beneficial and within the tolerance for the budget I provided. Chris was creative with doing this via a mix of payment options with upfront payments that then covert to rolling MRCs within our tolerance.

This is one of the most significant projects this year for our infrastructure team, and I trust BSO will deliver and not let us down, as I have worked with them previously. This is an actual demonstration of trust as it's my choice ultimately of network selection, and I am responsible for its success or failure.