Nearly two weeks after suffering a near day-long IT systems crash, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is confident that it has resolved the issue that brought it to a standstill.
The bourse's COO, Leanne Parsons, says the problem experienced by the JSE on 14 July "related to multicast (public) data not being disseminated by the JSE network to JSE equities market customers", and was isolated to the IOS software running on the network switch.
Cisco Systems' IOS software, used on Cisco routers and network switches, is a package of routing, switching, internetworking and telecommunications functions integrated with a multitasking operating system.
According to Parsons, "Extensive troubleshooting and root cause analysis has led to the Cisco engineers recommending the implementation of a new release of the IOS software.
"The JSE was already scheduled for an upgrade, with full market participation, on 26 July, and as such the newly-recommended version of the software was successfully installed and tested, inclusive of failover testing."
Two weeks ago, the JSE's IT glitch left its traders unable to see each other or the bourse for the majority of the working day. Even though trading was extended after hours once everyone was up and running, about R7 billion worth of trade was lost on the day.
However, Parsons says: "Based on the results of the testing and the number of successful trading days post the upgrade, the JSE is confident that the problem has been resolved."
This morning Norman Muller, head of Capital Market at the Financial Service Board (FSB), said while the FSB was "exceptionally concerned" about the JSE's crash, it had been in constant contact with the bourse subsequent to the down-time.
"They have kept us up to date and we don't believe the investigation took unnecessarily long," said Muller.
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