For the global securities industry, there are no regulatory bodies or government agencies like the FDA or DOT responsible for establishing and monitoring standardized performance benchmarks or metrics for technology. Each brokerage firm has its own processes, hardware configurations, and software, and the lack of common benchmarks has hampered firms' ability to make optimal configuration decisions in anticipation of rising data volumes. A private initiative, the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC), has emerged to fill this void. This TowerGroup Research Note introduces STAC and analyzes its benefits and possible consequences for securities industry vendors and institutions.