Determine the network complexity that is required to support the company’s security requirements. These are commonly based upon regulatory requirements (i.e., SEC Rule 203B3-2), industry standards and business process.

Assess how fast the network can execute a transaction. Since hedge funds have traditionally sought low-latency technology environments so orders could be executed as quickly as possible more complex designs place increased demands on the technology and slow the processing time. This is the classic trade-off between network speed and security.

Identify the correlation between cost and enhancing the network to increase transaction processing and associated requirements. Accelerating the speed of transactions requires investments in processors and other components of a network that need to be integrated physically and fiscally for optimization.