IT Infrastructure Consulting

Purpose-Built Low-Latency Infrastructure for Institutional Trading

We design and deploy trading infrastructure powered by custom FPGA development, kernel bypass networking, and hardware-accelerated systems engineered for deterministic, sub-microsecond performance.

<100ns
FPGA Latency
20+
Exchanges Live
100G
Line Rate
0
Syscalls in Hot Path

FPGA & Hardware Acceleration

Custom FPGA firmware for wire-speed market data parsing and order entry. We design hardware-accelerated pipelines that process at line rate on 10G/25G/100G networks, eliminating software overhead entirely from the critical path.

Our FPGA solutions construct order books in hardware, achieving sub-microsecond tick-to-trade latency. We work with Xilinx Alveo and Intel Agilex platforms, delivering turnkey solutions from RTL design through production deployment.

  • Wire-speed market data parsing at 10G/25G/100G line rate
  • Hardware order book construction with sub-microsecond updates
  • FPGA-based order entry with deterministic latency
  • Xilinx Alveo & Intel Agilex platform expertise
  • End-to-end RTL design, simulation, and production deployment
<100ns
Wire-to-Wire Latency
100G
Line Rate
RTL
Custom Firmware

Kernel Bypass Networking

Eliminate kernel overhead with user-space networking stacks. We implement DPDK, Solarflare/Xilinx OpenOnload, and ef_vi solutions that bypass the OS entirely, delivering packets directly to your application with zero-copy semantics.

Our custom UDP and TCP stacks are purpose-built for trading workloads: multicast-optimized, NUMA-aware, and backed by huge pages for deterministic memory access. No syscalls, no context switches, no jitter.

  • DPDK, OpenOnload, and ef_vi user-space networking
  • Zero-copy packet paths with huge page backing
  • NUMA-aware buffer allocation and memory binding
  • Custom UDP/TCP stacks for trading workloads
  • Multicast optimization and switch-level tuning
/* Kernel bypass stack layers */ Application | ef_vi / DPDK /* user-space */ | NIC Ring Buffer | Solarflare X2522 /* hardware */ | Network Wire /* No kernel. No syscalls. No context switches. */

Co-location & Bare Metal

We deploy and optimize bare-metal infrastructure at major financial data centers worldwide. No hypervisors, no containers in the hot path — just direct hardware access tuned for deterministic, low-jitter performance.

From rack-and-stack through cross-connect management and switch port configuration, we handle the full lifecycle of co-location deployments. Our expertise spans Equinix's global footprint with deep experience in financial exchange proximity.

  • Equinix NY4/NY5, LD4, TY3 deployment expertise
  • Bare metal provisioning — no hypervisor overhead
  • Cross-connect management and switch port tuning
  • NIC selection, firmware tuning, and interrupt optimization
  • Global co-location strategy and vendor management
NY4
Equinix Financial Hub
LD4
London
TY3
Tokyo

Linux & OS Tuning

Squeeze every nanosecond from your hardware with deep Linux kernel tuning. We configure CPU isolation, interrupt affinity, and memory subsystems to eliminate jitter and guarantee deterministic scheduling for latency-critical workloads.

Our kernel configurations include PREEMPT_RT patches for real-time guarantees, 1G/2M huge pages for TLB efficiency, and NUMA-local memory binding to eliminate cross-socket penalties. Every boot parameter is measured and validated.

  • CPU isolation with isolcpus, nohz_full, rcu_nocbs
  • IRQ affinity pinning and interrupt coalescing
  • 1G and 2M huge pages with NUMA-local binding
  • PREEMPT_RT kernel patches for deterministic scheduling
  • Measured boot-to-boot latency validation
# Kernel boot parameters GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=" isolcpus=2-15 nohz_full=2-15 rcu_nocbs=2-15 hugepagesz=1G hugepages=16 default_hugepagesz=1G intel_pstate=disable processor.max_cstate=0 idle=poll "

Low-Latency Software Engineering

We build trading infrastructure in modern C++ with zero allocations in the hot path. Lock-free and wait-free data structures, shared memory IPC with cache-line-aligned atomics, and custom allocators that eliminate malloc entirely from critical sections.

Our approach combines template metaprogramming for compile-time dispatch with hand-tuned data layouts that respect cache topology. Every microsecond is accounted for, every branch is predicted, every allocation is pre-planned.

  • Lock-free / wait-free concurrent data structures
  • Shared memory IPC with cache-line-aligned atomics
  • Custom allocators: slab, arena, pool — zero malloc in hot path
  • Template metaprogramming and compile-time dispatch
  • Cache-oblivious algorithms and SIMD vectorization
// Lock-free SPSC ring buffer template<typename T, size_t N> struct alignas(64) SPSCRing { alignas(64) std::atomic<uint64_t> w_{0}; alignas(64) std::atomic<uint64_t> r_{0}; T buf_[N]; bool push(const T& v) { auto w = w_.load(relaxed); if (w - r_.load(acquire) == N) return false; buf_[w & (N-1)] = v; w_.store(w+1, release); return true; } };

Monitoring & Observability

You can't optimize what you can't measure. We deploy hardware timestamping with PTP and PPS clock synchronization to achieve nanosecond-accurate latency measurement across your entire infrastructure.

Our monitoring solutions produce real-time latency histograms, percentile breakdowns, and anomaly detection with alerting. Every hop is instrumented — from NIC receive to application processing to order submission.

  • Hardware timestamping with PTP/PPS clock synchronization
  • Nanosecond-precision latency histograms (p50/p99/p99.9)
  • Real-time dashboards with anomaly detection and alerting
  • End-to-end hop-by-hop latency decomposition
  • Continuous regression testing against latency baselines
PTP
Hardware Clock Sync
ns
Precision
24/7
Monitoring

Our Infrastructure Stack

We work with the tools and platforms that institutional trading infrastructure demands.

FPGAXilinx Alveo & Intel Agilex
LanguagesC++ / Verilog / VHDL
NetworkingDPDK / OpenOnload / ef_vi
IPCShared Memory / Ring Buffers
ProtocolsFIX / ITCH / WebSocket
OSLinux / PREEMPT_RT / RHEL
MonitoringPTP / Hardware Timestamps
InfraBare Metal / Equinix Colo

How We Deliver

Every engagement starts with understanding your latency requirements, data sources, and trading objectives. We then design, implement, and support infrastructure tailored to your specific needs.

Discovery & Assessment

Audit your current infrastructure, measure baseline latencies, identify bottlenecks, and map data flow from exchange to execution. This produces the engineering blueprint for your target architecture.

Architecture Design

Based on your latency budget and throughput requirements, we design the optimal stack: hardware selection, network topology, FPGA vs. software trade-offs, and co-location strategy.

Implementation

FPGA firmware development, feed handler engineering, network configuration, and system integration. Everything tested with production-grade traffic before going live.

Ongoing Support

Exchanges change APIs, markets evolve, and latency requirements tighten. We provide continuous monitoring, optimization, and rapid response for new exchanges and protocols.

Common Questions About Infrastructure Consulting

What is IT infrastructure consulting for trading firms?

IT infrastructure consulting for trading firms involves designing, building, and optimizing the technology systems that power market data collection, order execution, and risk management. This typically includes low-latency data feed infrastructure, FPGA-accelerated processing, kernel bypass networking, co-location strategy, and exchange connectivity. The goal is to give trading teams a reliable, fast, and scalable technology foundation that directly impacts their ability to capture market opportunities.

Why do trading firms need custom FPGA development?

Software-based market data processing introduces variable latency due to operating system scheduling, memory allocation, and network stack overhead. For firms where microseconds matter, custom FPGA development eliminates these variables entirely. An FPGA processes data at the hardware level with deterministic timing — every packet is handled in exactly the same amount of time. Our FPGA solutions deliver sub-100ns wire-to-wire latency for market data parsing, order book maintenance, and protocol translation.

What is kernel bypass networking and why does it matter?

Kernel bypass networking (DPDK, Solarflare OpenOnload, ef_vi) delivers network packets directly to user-space applications without traversing the OS kernel. This eliminates syscall overhead, context switches, and interrupt processing jitter. For trading workloads, this reduces network latency from microseconds to nanoseconds and eliminates the tail latency spikes caused by kernel scheduling and interrupt coalescing.

What does a co-location deployment involve?

Co-location deployment places bare-metal servers at financial data centers (Equinix NY4, NY5, LD4, TY3) in close physical proximity to exchange matching engines. We handle hardware provisioning, NIC firmware tuning, cross-connect management, switch port configuration, and OS-level optimization to minimize every hop in the data path. No hypervisors, no containers — just direct hardware access tuned for deterministic performance.

How long does an infrastructure consulting engagement take?

A focused assessment and architecture design typically takes 2-4 weeks. Full implementation — including FPGA development, network configuration, and exchange connectivity — runs 2-4 months. We work in iterative phases so you see measurable latency improvements early in the engagement, with each phase building toward the target architecture.

Let's Engineer Your Infrastructure

Whether you need a full market data platform, a custom FPGA solution, or an assessment of your current stack — we're ready to help you eliminate latency and build infrastructure that scales.

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