OASIS Upgrade Testing & Coverage Analysis
- Introduction
- Trading System Migration Scope
- Trading System Migration – Functional and Regression Testing of ATHEX OASIS Platform
- Passive Testing and Results Analysis Automation with th2 Data Services
- Passive Testing Applications with th2 Data Services – Model-based Approach
- More Advanced Passive Testing Techniques
- Summary
Introduction
This case study focuses on the Athens Exchange (‘ATHEX’, ‘exchange’) Automated Integrated Trading System (‘OASIS’) platform upgrade and the related software testing support provided by Exactpro. During the upgrade, the legacy ATHEX Gateway of the OASIS platform previously supported by a COMM Server was to undergo a migration to a new FIX Server.
The business advantages of modernising the infrastructure include attaining cost efficiencies and strengthening the ATHEX ecosystem and its capital markets offering. The technical benefits of the new FIX Server included achieving enhanced security and recovery, improving throughput, performance, and scalability, while decreasing the complexity of the configuration and client connectivity, reducing latency, and minimising the amount of points of failure and spikes under load.
“In our continuous pursuit of delivering efficient services, ATHEX is currently undergoing a significant IT initiative focused on the modernization of our software and hardware, with a particular emphasis on our trading platform. The primary objectives of this initiative are to eliminate legacy components, adopt industry standards and enhance performance with a clear focus on HFT (High-Frequency-Trading). Technology plays a crucial role in driving business advancements and, ultimately, increasing revenues and ATHEX is fully committed to enabling progress in this regard.
“The introduction of ATHEX FIX, our new component supporting all order routing, marks the first bold step towards the modernization of our trading platform, which is undeniably a mission-critical task. This project takes the form of a new implementation, that fully replaces legacy software without impacting APIs and other interfaces. Our top priority is to ensure the validation of existing functionality. When stakes are high and room for error is non-existent, utmost care must be exercised to mitigate the risks. Automated, end-to-end functional testing becomes a borderline necessity and an absolute key factor in achieving the required levels of quality assurance.”
Theodoros Zarros, CTO, Athens Exchange Group
In testing large-scale mission-critical financial technology, test library automation is effectively achieved via a combination of active and passive testing methods. Thus, the case study serves a dual purpose: 1) it provides a reference use case for supporting trading system migrations to FIX-enabled technology, and 2) highlights the role of passive testing approaches in performing and automating regression testing and improving test coverage.