China is outgrowing basic stocks and has increased its spending in technology; and its commodity, bank and brokerage leaders have been planning this powerful technology tune-up for years. Although volume has never been one of the Shanghai exchange's problems, expanding capacity has been a key concern. Now the exchange has a Teradata Warehouse packed with a capacity of nearly 14 terabytes and every historical trade in Shanghai's existence.

Bai Shuo, assistant exchange president and chief technology officer, says that the technology upgrade has actually been in the works for seven years. Accenture was contracted to manage the system development and Teradata to create the data "warehouse." And, next year the exchange will be unveiling one of the world's most powerful trading systems, capable of handling an array of financial products that aren't even offered for trade currently. This year will be spent testing and training, and the existing stock-trading system will be phased out.

As far as performance, the Shanghai system manages 16,000 trades per second which is 3,000 more than the New York Stock Exchange. "The target is to keep the performance of the current system, and at the same time enlarge the functionality, for the modern capital market," Mr. Bai said.

"From a business point of view, our exchange is a mainly localized exchange, so globalization is the next step," says Mr. Bai. And, with 14 terabytes of capacity … Shanghai is more than ready to take that step.