TITLE Currency Server Software vs. Web Services TOPIC Q : What are the advantages of Currency Server vs. using a Web service, both individually and combined? DISCUSSION Overview Software-based and service-based solutions offer possible advantages, disadvantages and opportunities for synergistic interaction in terms of: - Ease of deployment Performance Reliability Control Scalability Maintenance Administration Cross-platform integration Total cost of ownership
Cloanto's business model for the Currency System family of products and services revolves around the belief that a combination of currency-enabling software and service (traditional data feed, or Web service) can provide superior results compared to a service-only approach. The most obvious requirement in any currency-related solution is that exchange rates fluctuate, and therefore require updates. The decision to support multiple currencies, however, normally has several additional implications which need to be addressed. While official reference rates usually change once a day, there are different events with occur both at a lower frequency (e.g. a few times per year) and at a higher frequency (e.g. for each conversion transaction). For example, exchange rates are not the only variable part in the equation: currencies split, merge, change their code or name, are replaced by other currencies, join or abandon unions, etc. When a currency joins a regime such as the EMU , triangulation has to be used instead of a simple division or multiplication to convert to and from non-EMU currencies. When converting currency amounts, local rounding rules have to be taken into consideration too: some countries use cents, others use different types of fractional parts, others use only integer amounts which are a multiple of 50, etc. On systems converting currency amounts, triangulation and rounding have to be performed for each transaction, and in consideration of all variables. Monitoring and notification procedures have to be in place to detect both normal events (e.g. a currency ceasing to be legal tender) and anomalies (e.g. unusual fluctuations, or a data feed not updating one or more exchange rates, etc.) while continuing to provide functionality. | |
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