What data is sent to Beeks Analytics as a Service?

You choose which data will mirror to Beeks Analytics as a Service. This remains entirely in your control. 

See below for more details of how you connect to Beeks Analytics as a Service.

As a customer outside Beeks Financial Cloud, what access do Beeks staff have to my infrastructure?

 Beeks staff do not require any access to your infrastructure.

As a customer outside Beeks Financial Cloud, what sort of cross-connects do I need to put in place in order to send my data to the service for Analysis?

The standard connection into the Analytics as a Service is a 10Gbps connection, although we can also accept connections of 1Gbps and 40Gpbs. We can accept multiple connections (if you want to mirror connections from multiple switches, for example, and do not have an aggregation switch in place).

Each port that feeds data into the service will require its own cross-connect.Typically this would be ordered by the client.

The connection between customer infrastructure and Beeks is “transmit only” – a one-way data path from their infrastructure to Beeks.

Contact your Beeks technical specialist to discuss your exact port requirements, including if you have port speed requirements that differ to those listed here - we may be able to accommodate you.

What data exactly does Beeks Analytics have access to, and what does it generate?

Beeks Analytics as a Service receives copies of the network traffic that you choose to send to it. It decodes this traffic, i.e., it interprets well-known financial market protocols such as FIX. This decoding involves extracting key datafields that can be used for analysis.

For example, the system can look at the timestamp in a FIX message which indicates when your counterparty sent the message, and can compare that with the time that the message was received within the Beeks infrastructure.

This information is invaluable in identifying, troubleshooting and resolving latency issues that can impact your trading performance. 

Key information from the decoded message fields is stored in a data repository, for you to use to trend your system performance. 

How can I set up Beeks Analytics as a Service to monitor my data outside of Beeks Financial Cloud?

There are multiple ways of ingesting the data. The easiest way, if you are located on the Equinix LD4 or NY4 campuses, is to order a cross connect to our service; we can accept cross connect port speeds of 1Gbps, 10Gbps and 40Gpbs. The connection between your infrastructure and Beeks will be “transmit only”, and your data will never leave the Equinix Campus where your trading takes place.  This is the standard way of feeding data into Analytics as a Service.

Beeks Analytics as a Service can also ingest data from public clouds over the internet or via Equinix Cloud Exchange, and we also support tunnelling (GRE or VXLAN). These are more bespoke options.

Is it possible to use Beeks Analytics as a Service but timestamp the packets on my device, outside of Beeks Financial Cloud?

Yes. For the highest fidelity latency analysis for very demanding high precision latency and microburst analysis, the customer can (if they wish, and if supported by their infrastructure) apply timestamping at their switch.

Beeks Analytics can then be configured to use this timestamp rather than the time at which we receive the data. Beeks recommends the use of Arista switches or cPacket packet brokers for the application of these timestamps, but will consume other timestamping formats as well.

Where is Beeks Analytics as a Service located? Does my data ever leave Beeks Financial Cloud?

Beeks Analytics as a Service is securely hosted on dedicated hardware within Beeks Financial Cloud, at the same campus as your cross connects. There is no use of public cloud involved in the delivery of the service. 

How do I control who can log in to my Beeks Analytics as a Service portal?

You’ll provide us with a list of users and we will permission only these users to access the Beeks Analytics as a Service portal. Within Beeks, only Beeks staff who are directly involved in supporting you will have access. No other users will be provided with access.

Any user with access to Beeks Analytics as a Service will also have access to a Beeks portal, which will allow them to reset their password for the service.

Users additions and deletions for the Analytics as a Service system will be processed by Beeks at the customer’s request.

How is my access to Analytics as a Service secured?

Users access Analytics as a Service using a standard web browser. Connections from the browser to the Analytics as a Service are TLS encrypted end-to-end. All client connections are made via a secure proxy, which is managed by Beeks. All client connections to Analytics as a Service are made via this proxy. Layered firewall defences prevent connections from external networks reaching the Beeks application servers or datastores.

At the customer's request, we can additionally implement IP address restrictions so that only your IP addresses and those of associated Beeks support staff are able to access your system.

If a client requires further security, a physical cross-connect can be put in place over which the client has access to the Beeks Analytics user interface (and to any API services they are consuming). This needs to be a different cross-connect (or pair of cross-connects) than the cross-connects which are mirroring the traffic to Analytics as a Service.