Teknekron Is Building Server To Masticate Bloomberg Data

UNDER an agreement with Bloomberg L.P., Teknekron Software Systems Inc. is developing software that will enable customers to apply Bloomberg data to local UNIX server-based applications. In line with Bloomberg's ongoing policy of strict control over its data, the vendor is requiring that output from these applications be displayed only on Bloomberg terminals.

The Teknekron venture, in which no cash changed hands, marks another step by Bloomberg toward the more open systems many of its customers are clamoring for. Nevertheless, some large users consider the step only a half-measure, expressing dismay at Bloomberg's refusal to grant them still greater leeway, particularly in how they display Bloomberg data.

Nevertheless, a number of customers of both vendors have expressed a strong interest in using Bloomberg's data in their own local UNIX server-based applications. A prime candidate for the planned Teknekron/Bloomberg collaboration is Merrill Lynch & Co., which owns 30 percent of Bloomberg and is its single largest customer.

Merrill has installed Teknekron's Teknekron Information Bus (TIB) local data distribution software for use by 100 of its fixed-income traders (TST, Sept. 20). The firm has long relied on Bloomberg for data services, but will increasingly turn to proprietary UNIX-based applications.

Others now using Teknekron's software in their trading rooms include Salomon Brothers Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co. Although both are partners in the EJV Partners L.P. venture to build a rival to Bloomberg, Salomon has 100 or so Bloomberg terminals and Goldman Sachs has hundreds.

As word of the Teknekron/Bloomberg pact trickled out, the rumor mill churned out talk that Bloomberg was poised to acquire Teknekron. Teknekron has been on the sales block for some time (TST, May 17). But sources say Bloomberg has no plans to acquire the Palo Alto, Calif.-based software vendor.

Teknekron officials decline to comment on the pact with Bloomberg. Mike Bloomberg, president of Bloomberg, didn't return calls.

But sources familiar with the vendors' plans say the software Teknekron is developing would enable customers to run their own applications on any UNIX-based server located at the client's premises. The server would receive Bloomberg data from a controller linked to the vendor's data center in New Jersey.

Data may be passed from the Bloomberg controller via Ethernet communications links to any UNIX-based server capable of running Teknekron's software. The output would then be passed back to the local Bloomberg controller, from which it would then be accessed via X terminal emulation on Bloomberg terminals.

Customers will pay Bloomberg the usual $995 or so per terminal for its data and analytical services. They'll also pay the usual consulting and software fees to Teknekron.

The new offering will insulate Bloomberg's data as much as possible from the lack of control normally associated with client/server-based distribution: Teknekron is developing security safeguards as part of the software.

As such, the development will do little to satisfy some major users keen to manipulate Bloomberg data and to free up desktop real estate for the display devices of their chosen local data distribution systems.

Rather, says a technology official at a Teknekron user firm, the system is aimed at those firms already using Bloomberg but that are also keen to take advantage of the proprietary applications a Teknekron server would allow them to support. Because the deal is designed to ensure that Bloomberg terminals remain safely ensconced on users' desks, it still doesn't address users' desire to consolidate desktop devices.

Nevertheless, the pact will benefit customers anxious to get their hands -- and analytics -- on Bloomberg's proprietary databases of historical, fundamental and real- time information. Under the service, users may also use derived data, such as calculated yields, to drive their own applications.

The alliance with Teknekron takes Bloomberg a step beyond its planned Quad Screen, which will allow customers' own UNIX-based analytics to be displayed on a four-monitor Bloomberg terminal (TST, June 14). The Quad Screen is scheduled for release by the end of the year.

The Teknekron/Bloomberg development advances the ball by allowing users to apply Bloomberg data to their own local applications. The Quad Screen is designed to allow Bloomberg terminals to display data and analytics derived from Bloomberg's rivals -- including Dow Jones Telerate and Reuters -- or from customers' internal databases.

Currently, Bloomberg customers are permitted to use the vendor's data to drive their own applications, but have to write those applications to run on Data General Corp. Aviion servers or Concurrent Computer Inc. mainframes located at Bloomberg's site (Inside Market Data, March 16, 1992).

This option will still be open to customers. In addition, subscribers wishing to share proprietary UNIX-based analytics with their own customers may house their Teknekron server hardware at Bloomberg's data center. In that case, Bloomberg handles -- and absorbs the cost of -- communications traffic and entitlements.

Alternatively, customers could request that Bloomberg add specific analyses or calculations to its service. Such requests would be put on the vendor's development list and added to the system for use by all Bloomberg customers. This practice helped Bloomberg build the range of applications it now offers.