Information Technology

DESIS is the D. E. Shaw group's largest software development centre and works on projects that span four broad areas:

Front Office

The Front Office builds a variety of systems, including real-time financial data-feed infrastructure, high-performance middleware, interactive trading systems, and quantitative analysis tools. The firm has spent many years developing these proprietary investment technologies.

Middle and Back Office

The Middle and Back Office builds systems that help manage the firm's portfolio, value it, report Profit and Loss, and produce performance reports for our investors. These systems drive the post-trade workflow for the firm.

IT Software Infrastructure

The proprietary IT Software Infrastructure group builds systems for various activities that are outside the trade cycle but might still be connected with the firm's trading strategies. For example, the group has helped create workflow systems, document management systems, a recruitment management system, and a secure enterprise search engine. These proprietary technologies are customised for the D. E. Shaw group's needs and provide significant advantages over off-the-shelf products.

Systems

Systems builds and supports the technical infrastructure of the firm, which includes large computing clusters. The group manages servers, desktops, networking equipment, storage systems, and databases, and supports users in the firm's worldwide offices. Systems builds custom Windows and Unix systems management tools to simplify and automate systems management tasks, and manages the design of production data servers and the performance of support development teams.