In a deal designed to provide faster access to financial databases, San Francisco-based network infrastructure provider Grand Central Communications Inc. and Thomson Financial yesterday announced a joint venture to deliver Web services to the financial community.
Under terms of the agreement, Thomson Financial will make a number of its databases available to its customers via Grand Central’s Web Services Network.
The databases, which have been integrated using the Thomson Press data integration software suite, provide an open and standard interface to Thomson Financial’s data sets. Taking advantage of open standards, both Thomson Press and Grand Central’s network provide Thomson Financial with a platform for exposing a Web services interface to its financial databases.
Grand Central’s Web Services Network infrastructure technology is designed to provide companies with integration capabilities without sacrificing security, reliability and manageability. (See Grand Central Enhances Web Services Network.)
Thomson Financial reports that is has built its Web services with the .NET Framework from Microsoft. By connecting through Grand Central’s network infrastructure, Thomson Financial says its customers can use data formats they prefer such as RIXML, Excel or XML schemas of their choice. Grand Central also allows customers to incorporate Thomson data into systems such as portals or analytics models in their organizations independent of platform.
“The collaboration between Thomson Financial, Grand Central and Microsoft is a great illustration of how the Web services ecosystem comes together to deliver innovative solutions,” said Charles Fitzgerald, general manager of platform strategy at Microsoft.
“Partnering with Grand Central allows us to provide customers with a secure, reliable and easy method of retrieving information, and integrating services, while reducing infrastructure costs and speeding development,” said Mark Barbagallo, vice president of Distributive Technologies, Thomson Financial. “This joint venture allows our customers simpler and faster access to our databases — making our information that much more valuable.”
Grand Central has been selected by ASPnews for inclusion on its list of Top 30 Enablers.
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