Sybase IQ Delivers Rich Analytics to LoanPerformance via Web Application

REVIEWER: Asif Rahman, director of Application Development for LoanPerformance.

BACKGROUND: LoanPerformance is the leader in mortgage finance, servicing, and securitization information and analytics. We created and maintain the industry’s largest and most robust mortgage securities and servicing databases and provide state-of-the-art analytical tools that our banking, trading and securities customers use to understand and manage their loan portfolios.

PLATFORMS: Red Hat Linux, HP DL585.

PROBLEM SOLVED: An innovator in mortgage securities data, LoanPerformance was faced with growing its business and supplying solutions to increasingly demanding customer requirements while operating an efficient technology architecture. The company also needed to add new Web-based capabilities and improve existing functionality of analytic applications. As LoanPerformance’s central databases grew exponentially into the double-digit terabyte range, queries and reports were taking longer than anticipated and customers grew tired of extended wait times for information. One in five queries took longer than five minutes, and one in 20 queries would time out. It was time to investigate alternatives beyond a traditional OLTP database on which to run mission-critical, predictive analytics applications.

PRODUCT FUNCTIONALITY: Installation of the new Sybase IQ system took only a week and immediately delivered dramatic results. The number of queries that took more than 10 minutes was reduced from 16 percent to less than one percent. LoanPerformance also saw an average speed increase of eight times - and up to 100 times - over the previous system. LoanPerformance can continue to offer unparalleled Web-based analytics services and information from the industry’s largest, most comprehensive database at lightning-fast speeds.

STRENGTHS: Sybase IQ provides very fast query responses - a key element in LoanPerformance success. The occurrence of long (or timed-out) queries is reduced from 16 percent to less than one percent. From a development and administrative standpoint, the Sybase IQ implementation was fast and required little additional tuning and no outside expertise. LoanPerformance is also able to fully leverage the strengths of the analytics server operating on a low-cost Linux platform. Finally, the solution scales to meet LoanPerformance requirements for both growth in users and complexity in queries.

WEAKNESSES: At this point, Sybase IQ cannot distribute the workload of a single query across multiple nodes. We expect to see that addressed in an upcoming version.

SELECTION CRITERIA: Seven alternatives were evaluated for this effort, using the following criteria: simple queries completed in under one minute; complex queries completed in at least 20 minutes; greatly expanded attributes for ad hoc queries; fast loads; MicroStrategy certified; concurrency, i.e., ability to handle large number of users; scalability, i.e., ability to handle future data growth in fields and numbers of records; and meet product timeline and client expectations. Four of the seven initial contenders were eliminated using the above criteria. The remaining solutions were tested using standard and ad hoc queries and both sequential and concurrent environments, representing the real-world demands of the system. Sybase IQ outperformed the competitive solutions with query speed and concurrent user scaling. Additionally, the Sybase IQ solution offers an economical way to provide a dedicated system to a particular user.

DELIVERABLES: The Sybase IQ-based system provides users with access to a flexible, fast analytics tool to allow the customization of data returns from the core data sets. Specifically, the system delivers derived metrics (market share, variance, etc.), subscriptions (automatic updates to periodic reports), object oriented (drag and drop, drilling, open framework), pure HTML (hyperlinks, access anywhere), the ability to create reports (using wizards or a blank template) and shared reports (created by LoanPerformance for use by all clients). The online analytics engine delivers securities, servicing, HELOC servicing and scorecard functionality via a Web browser to clients. Each of these data products leverages MicroStrategy as the front-end tool. These products allow customers to provide information like: prepayment trends, loans that are delinquent but not in foreclosure and portfolio performance measurements relative to the market.

VENDOR SUPPORT: The Sybase team worked closely with LoanPerformance to ensure the Sybase IQ instance would work in the preferred environment, deliver to the expected requirements and continue to scale with the growth of the business.

DOCUMENTATION: The documentation is complete and easy to understand. We could run the product easily if we had to rely on the documentation provided.