Forrester's Q3 2010 Global Financial Services Architecture Online Survey shows that financial services firms fall into two groups: One focuses on single vendor technology stacks, allowing for easier deployment and hopefully lower cost; the other bets on heterogeneous technology stacks potentially offering more flexibility, productivity, and vendor independence. Regional differences are strong, with North American firms showing more preference for heterogeneous stacks than European firms do. Forrester conducted its survey during summer 2010, and it spanned 80 IT decision-makers in financial services (FS) firms in Europe, North America, and select countries in other regions, including Australia, Japan, and South Africa.