Many of Tradex's customers - in particular, taxi drivers - are covered on a month-by-month basis for varying amounts of risk. The volume of contract renewals puts a significant strain on the company's Harlosh insurance application, and makes it particularly important to provide high levels of reliability and availability. To minimise the impact of unplanned downtime, Tradex reviewed several software-based high-availability solutions, and selected Echo² from iTera.

The Echo² solution from iTera uses the Remote Journaling functionality built into IBM i5/OS, rather than a custom-built transport mechanism for data. This simplified the development of the software, a fact reflected in its relatively low price and high speed of installation.

The combination of IBM System i5 technology and iTera Echo² software has given Tradex excellent protection for its Harlosh InsuranceFaces application. This handles quotations, underwriting, claims management and all associated administration, making it a key part of the Tradex business.