Technology Overview

Transaction Integrity

The Beacon matching engine is designed to maintain the anonymity of the participants. Transactions are handled according to established parameters consistently applied. Each party is matched in accordance with specified trade conditions.

An Execution and Audit Log records each event in every transaction and is accessible to the participants of that transaction after the transaction is completed.

System Availability and Integrity

All production systems are managed by Beacon and located in high security, co-location facilities providing power, cooling and Internet availability on a 24 by 7 basis.

Our architecture and hardware strategy is to use highly redundant arrays of servers and to keep the number of configurations to a minimum in order to maintain a high degree of reliability and service uptime.

Data Security and Integrity

Client and server applications communicate using a secure transport based on the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) implementing SSL 3.0 and TLS 1.0 and utilizing 128 Bit RSA encryption.

Every effort is made to protect and secure transaction and executions data by the following means and methods:
• All transaction message traffic is via FIX 4.4 protocol and takes advantage of FIX message logging and provisions for re-requesting missed messages.
• As a regulated broker-dealer, our subsidiary Beacon Capital Markets, LLC (member FINRA / SIPC) complies with all regulations regarding record retention and secure storage utilizing encryption, backup and electronic vaulting of transaction records.

Software Development

The Trade Discovery™ platform has been developed in house. Beacon makes use of open source tools throughout its system. In addition to the cost savings, other benefits include access to a global community of developers for support and maintenance.

Some of the tools used in our development process include: Linux, Java, Python, PostgreSQL, DRBD, Heartbeat, Apache Tomcat, JADE, MINA, QuickFixJ, Eclipse, Emacs, Subversion, Maven and Continuum.

Beacon is committed to deploying product management, development and QA methodologies which provide reliability, stability and product integrity in our service.