Cloud Technology Gives Managers an Operational Edge
Hedgeweek Special Report
“Last November we surveyed over 100 hedge fund managers on their attitudes towards using the cloud, their concerns from a security and data ownership perspective and over 87 of respondents said they were using the cloud in some shape or form today,” comments Bob Guilbert, Managing Director at Eze Castle Integration, a provider of IT solutions and private cloud services to more than 650 global alternative fund managers.
“Last year we brought on 102 new clients, 42 of which were start-ups.”
Chris Nash is the Chief Operating Officer at Senrigan Capital, a Hong Kong-based USD340mn event-driven hedge fund. Whilst security has become less of a concern (due to advances in encryption), Nash says that there are still legal questions to be considered regarding the domicile of the data: “I don’t think use of the cloud in itself creates transparency problems, though a lack of attention to the different security issues posed by both the cloud and the use of mobile devices certainly could lead to breaches that could lead the manager seriously exposed.”
Over in New York, Navatar Group, the leading provider of cloud-based CRM solutions to Wall Street, has seen a 50 percent increase in adoption among hedge fund managers over the last 12 months. “We now have over 500 managers using the Navatar cloud,” confirms Alok Misra, co-founder and principal at Navatar, adding: “Managers require not only better technology, they need it to be connected to reduce manual tasks. Our role over the next couple of years will be to do things that funds can’t do today such as find the right investors and market their funds.”
How one defines the cloud is open to debate. There are plenty of software vendors now offering cloud solutions that are essentially an elaborate ASP; that is, the
data sits in a cloud for single tenants and relies upon multiple databases. Firms like Liquid Holdings and Navatar Group offer true cloud solutions that are multi-tenant, single database.
“When I talk about a single database what I’m really talking about is a comprehensive data management solution born in the cloud,” says Robert O’Boyle, Executive Vice President and Director of Sales & Marketing at Liquid Holdings. “You have all the order and execution management data, risk and portfolio data stored in a single database and you’re running computations off of that. It’s already in the cloud. What other organisations are doing is pulling information from other applications then standardising it for accessibility via the cloud.”
By using the multi-tenant cloud, it means that when Navatar makes enhancements to its CRM products all of its clients get to benefit at once.
“Our product team is constantly working in the background making improvements to our CRM products often without clients even noticing. At the backend there’s an awful lot going on,” says Misra.
O’Boyle concurs, noting that the firm’s approach is to ascribe an “agile development methodology. As our platform is multi-tenant it means we are able to release functionality to our clients much quicker than locally installed or hosted providers who have a single tenant architecture.”
“Last November we surveyed over 100 hedge fund managers on their attitudes towards using the cloud, their concerns from a security and data ownership perspective and over 87 of respondents said they were using the cloud in some shape or form today,” comments Bob Guilbert, Managing Director at Eze Castle Integration, a provider of IT solutions and private cloud services to more than 650 global alternative fund managers.
“Last year we brought on 102 new clients, 42 of which were start-ups.”
Chris Nash is the Chief Operating Officer at Senrigan Capital, a Hong Kong-based USD340mn event-driven hedge fund. Whilst security has become less of a concern (due to advances in encryption), Nash says that there are still legal questions to be considered regarding the domicile of the data: “I don’t think use of the cloud in itself creates transparency problems, though a lack of attention to the different security issues posed by both the cloud and the use of mobile devices certainly could lead to breaches that could lead the manager seriously exposed.”
Over in New York, Navatar Group, the leading provider of cloud-based CRM solutions to Wall Street, has seen a 50 percent increase in adoption among hedge fund managers over the last 12 months. “We now have over 500 managers using the Navatar cloud,” confirms Alok Misra, co-founder and principal at Navatar, adding: “Managers require not only better technology, they need it to be connected to reduce manual tasks. Our role over the next couple of years will be to do things that funds can’t do today such as find the right investors and market their funds.”
How one defines the cloud is open to debate. There are plenty of software vendors now offering cloud solutions that are essentially an elaborate ASP; that is, the
data sits in a cloud for single tenants and relies upon multiple databases. Firms like Liquid Holdings and Navatar Group offer true cloud solutions that are multi-tenant, single database.
“When I talk about a single database what I’m really talking about is a comprehensive data management solution born in the cloud,” says Robert O’Boyle, Executive Vice President and Director of Sales & Marketing at Liquid Holdings. “You have all the order and execution management data, risk and portfolio data stored in a single database and you’re running computations off of that. It’s already in the cloud. What other organisations are doing is pulling information from other applications then standardising it for accessibility via the cloud.”
By using the multi-tenant cloud, it means that when Navatar makes enhancements to its CRM products all of its clients get to benefit at once.
“Our product team is constantly working in the background making improvements to our CRM products often without clients even noticing. At the backend there’s an awful lot going on,” says Misra.
O’Boyle concurs, noting that the firm’s approach is to ascribe an “agile development methodology. As our platform is multi-tenant it means we are able to release functionality to our clients much quicker than locally installed or hosted providers who have a single tenant architecture.”
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