Sell-Side Technology Awards 2016: Best Sell-Side Web-Based Development Environment — OpenFin

Around three years ago, HTML5 was still the subject of debate as to its potential and suitability for application within the capital markets. Now, it has quickly been established as the de-facto technology for large numbers of development projects and OpenFin is placed at the forefront of the space, with performance and security at the center of its efforts.

OpenFin has created a “container” technology that allows HTML5 desktop applications to run outside of a web browser, meaning that developed applications can be deployed instantly without any installation process, and easily integrated with a few lines of code on both Windows and Mac machines, without the need for any additional development. It also presents the ability to simplify application rollouts between platform providers and end-user firms; for example, if banks or stock exchanges use the same technology as their clients to build applications, they can then be deployed without the need for bespoke applications to be developed for end-users or to provide multiple versions of applications in different programming languages to integrate with all the different technology platforms used by clients.

The firm has already amassed an impressive client roster from across the capital markets, including BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HSBC, ICAP, JP Morgan, RBS, TruMid and REDI Tech, not to mention around 250 buy-side firms. It intends to build on this already impressive track record by making its container technology the industry standard. At the heart of this was OpenFin’s move at the end of last year to “open-source” the container technology, which is based on Google’s open-source Chromium project, tailored to meet the experience and security requirements of the financial services industry. It has identified three key areas that it aims to push the container technology toward, effectively making it the capital markets standard: security, interoperability between applications, and delivering upgrades to the engine. 

The vendor is also taking steps to create and establish standards to allow permissioned access to desktops by trusted applications, in response to current situations where other container-type technologies allow untrusted code access to desktop operating systems. Finally, it is aiming to establish industry-wide standards for packaged upgrades of its HMTL5 container on a quarterly basis, allowing it to keep pace with the ongoing evolution of web browsers, which, if not satisfactorily addressed, can lead to limited capabilities or application failures. 

OpenFin has created a “container” technology that allows HTML5 desktop applications to run outside of a web browser, meaning that developed applications can be deployed instantly without any installation process, and easily integrated with a few lines of code on both Windows and Mac machines, without the need for any additional development.