Nasdaq Decodes: Nasdaq Financial Framework
Nasdaq Decodes with Ryan Wells explores the Nasdaq Financial Framework (NFF) with Patrik Färnlöf, Senior Vice President of NFF Platform Engineering at Nasdaq. Below is a transcript of the conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
RW: Let's start from the top on NFF, Nasdaq Financial Framework, which was launched in 2016. Can you start by giving us a taste about the drivers behind wanting to create NFF? Was it something from the clients that you heard that you felt like there is a need for something like the Nasdaq Financial Framework?
PF: At that point, we had listened to feedback from the clients, and we looked at how the landscape was changing. We at Nasdaq deliver a lot of different solutions to our customers – and there was a drive towards commonality in the different solutions that we deliver, and much more rapid change in the technology landscape. This meant that we needed to infuse more new, modern ways of doing things, such as moving to the cloud as. NFF is really a combination of creating a true platform for all the different business systems and business applications Nasdaq is developing, and creating a common platform for all of them to inter-operate and run on top of. Additionally, we could quickly change that platform; moving, for example, from on-premise to the cloud, and creating this common environment for applications to run on.
RW: We are about three years since then roughly. Where are we now with the evolution of the NFF?
PF: What we are seeing is that, once again, the landscape has changed a little quicker. When you look at a complex area like cloud for example, there is a lot around elasticity – how can I start small with my market and grow my market – those are the things we talking about. The same goes for server-less computing, which is something that we are now looking into, and how we can have more nimble APIs. As we are transforming our business applications to take full advantage of the platform, we are also looking at creating more micro-services. As you create more micro-services, you also want to look at your APIs and connectivity, and break them apart to be much more nimble, and have more purpose-built APIs so clients can take better advantage of the business functionality. So those are specific areas and trends that we're looking at right now.
RW: Coming from more of a business point of view, if I was a business leader, like a CEO or CFO – someone who is not on the technology end – can you explain a little bit about the business value about NFF, why does this make sense to use from a business standpoint?
PF: What we see is quite rapid change in both the regulatory landscape and the technology and innovation. One of the key things is; change. That could be change in terms of your business rules and how you deploy new business rules etc. We might want to start with a matching-engine target, for futures, options trading, or we might even want to move into digital tokens. We have matching capabilities for each specific purpose that is much quicker now when we have can deploy those assets on top of a common platform. It is much easier to do transformational changes in technology from, for example, on-prem to cloud using the platform. So, it's a lot about the changing landscape and how the platform can help with that.
PF: In addition, as you look at your market, you might think “well I might want to extend my opening hours; I might even want to move to 24/7”; the platform enables that type of shift as well. In addition to that, we have the API aspects I talked about, to start offering more nimble APIs and much more rapid and changing APIs to my members, giving them new ways of accessing the system. As you move onto new markets, for example, from the more traditional way of accessing the system, you can use those nimble APIs, to even enable things like trading from your phone and the whole use-patterns of that.
RW: I see. So, for instance, if we talk about a SaaS-model, is that something that is desirable right now for marketplaces that would use the SaaS-model of NFF? Is this possible?
PF: Well, absolutely. That is where we see one of the up and coming trends of how you would establish a new market, for example, or even transition an existing one. The good thing with the SaaS approach is, of course, that Nasdaq takes care of all the technical aspects and allows a user to be even more focused on the APIs and the user experience of how to access the solution. SaaS allows us to start small as well and to use the elasticity of the cloud and expand that. The same goes for the data side. As your market grows and you get more and more data coming in, we can expand the footprint that we need to use by, for example, using the cloud. It is much easier from a customer perspective to grow with the solution using a SaaS offering.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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