Open source is still gaining momentum in the industry worldwide. Despite naysayers, open-source software and hardware are making believers out of a broad array of users. In the case of Bombay Stock Exchange, LTD (BSE), the transition has been cost efficient, as well as has improved order processing power.

By switching from proprietary hardware to open source, Kersi Tavadia, CIO of BSE, reported going from being able to process 10 million orders a day to 400 million. Even with the increase, the new open-source hardware is only using 10 percent capacity.

Tavadia talked with Stu Miniman (@stu) and Brian Gracely (@bgracely), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during Red Hat Summit 2016 in San Francisco. He explained that BSE’s move to open source was motivated by a need for better agility and openness.

Open source, an intelligent investment

Tavadia stated that BSE reached a threshold where there was no point in replacing the hardware. Thus, BSE changed the entire architecture. All of the proprietary hardware was replaced with open-sourced stacks. The current setup is a collection of micro applications connected to a VPN.  BSE runs Hadoop on 500 terabytes of Big Data.

Tavadia called the move to open source “an intelligent investment.” For the cost of maintaining the previous hardware, BSE was able to procure the new hardware with a three-year warranty.

Opinions on open source in India

Nevertheless, BSE is one the first financial institutions in India to go open source, Tavadia said. He observed that many institutions are waiting for others to try open source first, but he encourages companies to take the plunge.

Opinions about open source are still “skewed,” noted Tavadia. “If we can run the most critical infrastructure on open-source technology, any other person can run open source.”

Watch the entire interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Red Hat Summit.

Photo by SiliconANGLE