Thomson Financial says it is investing heavily to improve Datastream, its historical financial numerical database. The company says it has installed an IBM Z990 mainframe to host the data, improving capacity by 35%, and accelerating query response times.
“We are pleased to be able to announce these improvements to Thomson Datastream as part of our ongoing commitment to this market leading solution set,” says Thomas Aubrey, the former FT Interactive executive who now heads Datastream Research and Economics at Thomson Financial in London. “Together with its ongoing integration into the Thomson ONE open application framework, we will be able to target specific markets such as performance and risk management functions, which require timely bulk data feeds for business critical functions and niche investment companies including hedge funds.”
Users can now also access Datastream via the Internet, which Thomson says will appeal to mobile clients, and to smaller users that are either unable to obtain a fixed Internet Protocol addresses or do not wish to pay a premium charge for the connectivity. Thomson adds that government organizations in the UK and US are already accessing Datastream via the Internet, and so is Nassauische Sparkasse, the German retail banking group.
Datastream cover securities in 175 countries and 60 markets worldwide, and its accompanying applications offer users analysis and charting facilities, and the option to export data to Microsoft Office applications.