Reuters Briefs Rivals On New 3000 Series; Develops API

Reuters briefed rival data distribution platform vendors on the structure of its 3000 series of combined real-time and historical data products last month so that they can build the necessary interfaces to their systems. A new application programming interface has been developed to allow other vendors to access the real-time components of the 3000 series services.

According to Martin McCaig, international product manager, systems, in Reuters' information management systems (IMS) unit, Reuters plans to move to beta testing of the 3000 Series on distribution platforms "as early as possible." He adds that the vendor expects to begin testing on its own Triarch data distribution system later this month or early next.

The initial versions of the new services, Securities 3000, Money 3000 and Treasury 3000, will be available on the Networked Reuter Terminal (NRT). These are expected to be formally launched before July (IMD, April 22). "There will be a longer integration process before it is available on platforms," says McCaig, adding that some vendors, including Reuters itself, are likely to be able to deliver production versions of the platform interfaces before the end of the year.

Reuters has christened the program "open applications," because the 3000 products have applications embedded in them that need to take data from the platform in order to operate. According to McCaig, the historical data element used in the services is "no problem" since it is accessed via a TCP/IP connection. "What is an issue is that all of the applications make use of real-time data and integrate it [with the historic]," he says.

Reuters' preferred method is to use a new API, called the Real-time data Environment Interface (REI), to interface between the applications and the third party platform's own API. An alternative is to use a Reuters-supplied Selectserver to take the real-time data into the 3000 applications via the same mechanism that would be used in an all-Reuters installation. In that case, a component called the Reuters REI Server (RRS) provides the interface between the REI in the application and the Source/Sink Library (SSL) data from Triarch or a Selectserver.

McCaig says that the use of a Selectserver and RRS allows for those platform vendors who don't want to develop an interface to the REI. "Some small vendors may decide not to develop an interface," he says. "It's not a trivial development, and as the specification develops, they'd have to evolve their software, which may not be the direction they want to go in."

However, he points out that there would be a cost penalty for 3000 series users installing a Selectserver/RRS configuration where their platform vendor had not developed an interface: a Selectserver adds some $1,000 per position to the cost of the installation. "It would be a barrier to their customers if they don't [develop an interface]" says McCaig. In practical terms, this means that third parties either have to develop an interface or face the possibility of Reuters salespeople pointing out to customers that they could save money by switching platforms to Triarch.

The REI is a combination of the protocols used in Reuters' Marketfeed data feed architecture and Microsoft's Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). According to McCaig, Reuters has chosen to use DDE rather than Microsoft's more sophisticated Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) protocol because "We don't feel that [OLE] is yet ready." DDE, by contrast, is "safe, standard and understood by developers," he says.

He adds that in the future, REI is likely to switch to using OLE as its underlying mechanism. "The technology will certainly evolve over time," he says.