In the financial services sector, robust network infrastructure is essential to meet the industry’s need for speed, security, and reliability. Businesses facilitating financial transactions, whether in trading, banking, or payment processing, require real-time data transfer and minimal latency to compete effectively in the global market. A well-designed network infrastructure provides the foundation for operational success and innovation in a sector where trust and efficiency are crucial.
Solutions engineers are critical in making these essential network solutions possible for financial services customers. Joe Strause, Sr. Manager, Solutions Architecture, discusses how Zayo designs tailored solutions for finance clients by exploring client needs, fostering strong technical relationships, and maintaining ongoing collaboration to meet evolving expectations.
What are the key considerations when designing a network solution for financial services customers?
JS: Number one is always resiliency — whether we’re designing a resilient solution or designing half a solution for the customer to maintain their own resiliency. No downtime is the number one goal for any customer and service, but that’s not reality. Resiliency built with diversity using unique fiber routes and protection are the designs we provide.
How do you ensure scalability and flexibility in your solutions to accommodate future growth?
We have bigger conversations with the customers — understanding what today’s and tomorrow’s needs are, so we’re designing a solution that scales.
JS: Most importantly, we design solutions that have flexibility. We have bigger conversations with the customers — understanding what today’s and tomorrow’s needs are, so we’re designing a solution that scales.
What specific security measures are implemented to protect sensitive financial data?
JS: The biggest one is we have NDAs with all financial customers. From our perspective, that’s probably the biggest security measure we take. We do have conversations where a customer says, “Hey, here’s an initiative working on, nobody else knows about it yet, let’s keep it under your hat until it’s publicly announced.” So it’s a level of trust, where security comes in. In this industry, trust is the best thing you can have.
When it comes to network expansion, like our new New York-New Jersey 400G metro network, what prompted these upgrades, and how do they address critical pain points in the finance sector?
JS: The big one was that we needed more capacity in the existing metro system. It was an older system, and the network wasn’t providing services to all the important buildings. The New York and New Jersey finance market has expanded. Back in the day when the original ring was built, it was the primary data centers — the Halseys, the Hudsons, the 111 8ths of the world. The industry has scaled, and the shared data center footprint has increased dramatically.
For several reasons, financial services companies have pushed footprints deeper in New Jersey and New York. Hurricane Sandy and the expansion of the data center footprint into new markets were just a few reasons. So my team was lucky enough to have a big hand in designing what that new ring will look like based on our experience in the market, where the customers are moving to, which buildings are going to new data centers in the market, and requests from our customers.
We’ve also put in many standalone point-to-point systems to these data centers over the years, and we’ve done it repeatedly. Some of these data centers have had multiple point-to-point systems. This puts us in a position where we can start to groom those standalone systems and move them on to an infrastructure system that everybody can use. This gives us more flexibility in the overall network.
How does Zayo ensure diverse routing options to minimize risk and enhance reliability for financial clients?
JS: We work closely with the customers and our internal teams. When making a design, we ensure our internal records are accurate, because we’re designing down to the manhole level for customers. Which street it goes down, which cable it’s using, and which side of the street the cable’s on for customers to maintain their diversity and the unique routing they need.
Can you describe your process for assessing a financial services client’s current infrastructure and identifying areas for improvement?
JS: One of our biggest assets is being a partner, not just a vendor. My team builds relationships with these customers, and they become trusted advisors. We have the advantage of talking to a variety of financial customers, so we can bring that expertise to the big and small customers. Sharing industry trends and what customers are doing to address these types of problems or to accomplish these solutions. We spend a lot of time talking to customers about what we see and what their needs are. We sell based on relationships — this is not a transactional business. You buy from people you trust, and to build trust, you have to build relationships.
What steps do you take to ensure minimal downtime and maximum reliability for use cases like the trading floor?
JS: It goes back to the diversity. We make sure we’re designing as diverse as possible from the other solutions and services and trying to build that 100% uptime model. The trading floor is a unique environment on its own because the primary circuit of the trading floor is typically a low-latency circuit, and there’s never gonna be as fast of a circuit as that primary circuit. Many trading floors, especially in the high-frequency trading market, sometimes use three or four routes because trading can’t stop just because a circuit’s down. They still need to be effective while that circuit’s down. It becomes a very complex solution. If a core network for a trade floor goes down, that’s huge. A customer explained to me once that if their low latency circuit goes down, the C-suite of executives knows about it immediately because they are losing millions a second.
Finance customers need connectivity to the Cloud. How do you design solutions that meet those needs, and how does that make us a better network partner for finance?
JS: We design flexible solutions — small bandwidth, big bandwidth, layer 2, layer 3, waves, dark fiber, or whatever’s needed to get to the Cloud. We approach designing cloud solutions the same way we approach the other designs. We’re going to put our best foot forward, exploring what they need today and how it will grow tomorrow. Designing solutions that scale for multiple clouds and bandwidths. We’re a better partner because we design what they need versus what we want to sell them.
How do you collaborate with financial services clients during the design phase to ensure their needs and expectations are fully met?
JS: We build a static relationship with the customers. Trusting what we’re putting in front of them is the most important. Again, we want to be their partner rather than just their vendor. We spend time with them, listen to what they’re trying to solve, and provide multiple options for their solutions. It’s not always a one-stop shop. We ensure we’re putting all the solutions on the table for them without convoluting what they’re trying to do. We present a few great options to the customer versus several mediocre options for them to pick from.
On the opposite side, how do you collaborate throughout the contract to ensure that future needs and expectations are met?
This is truly a white glove service in this vertical. We do a lot of custom stuff, and customers buy because they appreciate the detail and attention we give them.
JS: We have to maintain that technical relationship. Relationships die if you don’t maintain them. So we maintain communication, we participate in external QBRs with customers, so they’re hearing what’s new at Zayo, and we’re also going over the status of their circuits, their billing, those types of conversations. This is truly a white glove service in this vertical. We do a lot of custom stuff, and customers buy because they appreciate the detail and attention we give them.