The Internet Went Down. The Trading Desk Didn't Notice.
For a trading firm, a few seconds offline during market hours isn't an inconvenience. It's a missed trade. This firm had two internet lines and one rule above everything else: the trading desk must never go dark. Their old router couldn't keep that promise. One IOPSTOR firewall could.
Problem Statement
The old router treated every computer in the office the same. When a line failed, everyone piled onto the remaining one, and the trading desk ended up fighting the back office for bandwidth at exactly the wrong moment. There was no way to see which line was healthy, its settings couldn't even be exported, and connecting the firm's second office across the city wasn't possible at all.
One box, one clear order of priority
We installed an IOPSTOR firewall and taught the network who matters most.
BOTH LINES UP:
- Trading desk gets the leased line to itself, with the second line on standby.
- Back office and everyone else share the second line, so the trading line stays clean.
LEASED LINE FAILS:
- Trading desk: switches to the second line within seconds. Traders keep working.
- Back office and everyone else pause until the leased line returns, so every bit of the backup line goes to trading.
LEASED LINE RETURNS: EVERYTHING GOES BACK TO NORMAL ON ITS OWN. NO RESTARTS, NO PHONE CALLS, NOBODY TOUCHES A CABLE.
What the IOPSTOR firewall did here
- Priority routing by team: each group of computers follows its own rules for which line to use and when.
- Automatic failover: it switches lines in seconds and switches back when the main line recovers.
- Real health checks: it tests each line against servers on the internet, not just the modem on the desk, so a "connected but not working" line never fools it.
- Live visibility: the team can see the health of every line at a glance, instead of finding out from complaints.
All of it runs on one box, with no extra software subscriptions and no new internet connections.
The Result
- The trading desk stayed online through line failures, and never had to share its line.
- The rest of the office got one simple, predictable rule: when the main line is down, trading comes first.
- Two offices now work as one network over the lines they already had.
Two lines. One box. One priority: the trade.
Ready to talk?
Your business has a desk that can't go offline too. Talk to us about putting an IOPSTOR firewall in front of it.