SunGard Introduces Centralized Messaging Hub
September 22, 2008
SunGard Data Systems introduced its Ambit Messaging Hub, a highly flexible messaging platform, at Swift's Sibos conference in Vienna last week. According to the Wayne, Pa.-based company, the system offers a single Web interface for business and IT users that supports SwiftNet and Swift's FIN network and acts as an interface to Switzerland's Secom settlement system and Swiss Interbank Clearing.
Part of the Ambit suite of front- to back-office banking solutions introduced in April, the messaging service draws on the Mint middleware and payment processing technology that SunGard obtained in its October 2006 deal for Belgium-based Trax. Several major European banks that were Mint users have already made the transition to the Ambit hub, said Hans Cobben, group VP of SunGard payments and messaging solutions and former CEO of Trax. Available as installed software or a hosted service, there are more than 50 customers on the platform.
The messaging hub, as does the entire Ambit line, follows SunGard's practice of combining its existing technologies with acquired solutions to create new products. The company's Common Services Architecture (CSA) is a collaborative approach to development across the company, ranging from wrapping code to make it available as a Web service to standardized, plug-and-play components.
The messaging platform's architecture is "brand new and part of the CSA initiative," explained Cobben. "It is based on the Trax intellectual property and is a full J2EE [Java 2 Enterprise Edition] functionality stack which can run on a number of platforms, operating systems and databases." The system provides communications, workflow management, processing and audit capabilities.
By separating the messaging platform from applications, Ambit lets banks come to market with new services faster over any network, said Cobben. "Network availability and service provisioning will become a commodity," he stated. "The offering we have allows financial institutions to optimize the time-to-market for new services they have on whatever infrastructure they want to use--Swift, host to host, bank to corporate or correspondent banking. We think these infrastructural decisions will be driven far more by the business than an IT perspective."
Messaging in a Box
Adam Honoré, senior analyst at Boston-based Aite Group, described the new service as messaging in a box. "Connectivity has been the hard part for a lot of people, and that is where you get companies like Volante and other middleware connectivity providers. Here, SunGard bundles connectivity into a messaging hub so you get it all in one appliance. It's a nice, one-stop-shop solution."
Cobben said that business decisionmakers also want to reduce operational risk caused by disparate legacy systems tied to each other through subsystems. A central messaging hub will rationalize the existing communications infrastructure and also provide a platform to support future growth.
"Banks are growing at a rapid pace and need integration capabilities to leverage their M&A investments," he added. "They all promise a lot of savings when they do an acquisition, and then comes the operational challenge to integrate all the pieces. In addition, they face requirements from regulators over audit requirements while they are maintaining legacy protocols, forms and standards."
In legacy designs, the back-office systems maintain connections to networks and hold the logic to communicate with other systems and counterparties. With a specialized messaging hub, the back office can perform functions such as general ledger and payment processing while the hub manages the connectivity. New networks and counterparties can be added through the hub.
