Malaysia-based N2N Connect Bhd is a leading provider of e-commerce and mobile commerce solutions for securities trading. The company’s eBrokerConnect™ online trading engine is licensed by major brokerage firms and banks in Malaysia that wish to offer their customers the ability to trade directly in the stock market using their Internet-enabled computers, mobile phones and personal digital assistants –- without having to go through a personal broker for each trade. Since its founding in 2000, N2N Connect has earned numerous industry accolades. It was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) in 2005. Today, N2N Connect provides its services to more than 150,000 customers of a dozen leading brokerage firms and banks in Malaysia, and accounts for 35 percent of the total trading volume on the KLSE.

The Challenge: Managing Major Spikes in Traffic during Active Trading

The stock markets are rarely predictable, and unexpected developments in the local, regional and global economies can suddenly trigger huge spikes in trading volumes several times a day. It was critical for N2N Connect to find a solution to handle these unpredictable spikes on a daily basis. Also, with 60,000 active users and growing, the company wanted to ensure its system could accommodate exponential increases in traffic. These challenges, combined with user sensitivity to response times, made N2N Connect’s infrastructure challenge much more acute than that of other businesses.

“Beyond just accessing our services, investors need the ability to buy or sell shares immediately because share prices in the stock market change by the second,” said managing director Andrew Tiang. “Investors’ expectations are very high and it’s understandable because a time lag can cost them a lot of money.”

To manage usage spikes and increasing transaction volume, N2N Connect initially subscribed to the bandwidth of multiple Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be certain that users would get immediate access to its gateway services without any downtime. However, the company still faced the challenge of ensuring that the traffic was evenly spread across all its ISPs.

“At each of the ISPs we contracted with, N2N Connect is among the top five companies in terms of generating traffic volumes. It is important that we do not completely exhaust all of the available bandwidth for an ISP. As such, we needed a load-balancing solution that could ensure efficient distribution of bandwidth,” Tiang said.

Implementing the Citrix NetScaler Application Switch

In 2006, N2N Connect implemented Citrix® NetScaler® Application Switch 9000, Enterprise Edition, after evaluating a number of solutions. Citrix NetScaler application delivery solutions combine the features and functions of traditional datacenter point products — load balancing, caching, compression, SSL acceleration, attack defense, SSL VPN — into a single network appliance, built from the ground up to maximize the performance of applications. According to Tiang, choosing one of the other solutions would have required N2N Connect to invest in at least two additional hardware components to meet its IT requirements.

Improved Bandwidth Optimization and Accelerated Response Times

With Citrix NetScaler SSL acceleration and load-balancing capabilities, N2N Connect was able to optimize its bandwidth by 30 percent. Citrix NetScaler also provides surge protection to handle sudden spikes in transactions, with additional compression and load balancing to make sure no investor is prevented from conducting a trade online during peak traffic periods. Additionally, the transactions running through N2N Connect’s gateway are executable in one to two seconds.

Tiang explained, “The ability to give our customers the assurance of faster and consistent uptime was important, and that’s why we decided on Citrix NetScaler as the single appliance that could provide for all of our IT requirements as compared to the other alternatives. NetScaler has enabled N2N Connect to handle traffic peaks and accelerate response times, and this has ultimately translated into improved customer satisfaction.”

Enabling Cross-border Trading Services

Based on its success in Malaysia, N2N Connect began expanding its services beyond the region through its GlobalConnect initiative –- rolling out its services to investors in other countries, as well as providing its entire user community with access to cross-border trading services. By the second quarter of 2007, the company expects to roll out its services to eight countries in Asia and the Middle East.

“Our vision is for investors anywhere in the world to trade in any markets of their choice, anytime they want,” said Tiang. “NetScaler is going to play a critical role in enabling our IT infrastructure to support the tremendous volume of transactions as we roll out our services abroad and sign up more customers.”

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