Hedge IT Blog

Last week, the Eze Castle Integration team in London hosted a breakfast seminar, in conjunction with HFMWeek, on how to successfully launch a hedge fund. The seminar featured a panel of experts:

• Simon Eyre, Service Director at Eze Castle Integration
• Bill Prew, COO at James Caird Asset Management
• Gus Black, Partner at Dechert LLP
• Jae Yung Kwon, EMEA Prime Brokerage, J.P. Morgan

Numerous topics were covered including investment strategies, approaches to raising capital, regulatory considerations, service provider selection, and technology systems. In today’s article we’d like to dive a little deeper into the key technology requirements that all funds must consider when starting up. These include infrastructure, telecommunication and compliance and archiving.

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Opalesque TV recently sat down with Vinod Paul (of Eze Castle Integration!) to discuss how cloud computing is altering the technology landscape in the hedge fund industry. The conversation covered a lot of ground including:

• Public vs. Private vs. Hybrid Clouds
• The Migration from Traditional IT to the Cloud
• Impact of Reduced Costs in the Cloud
• Real-world Examples of Cloud Utilization
• Examining the Technology Environment for Startups
• Scalability with the Cloud
• Cloud Security Best Practices
• The Future of the Cloud

Watch the video now.

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Here at Eze Castle, we believe knowledge is power.

Having an understanding of your firm’s technology needs will take you far, particularly when it comes to satisfying increasingly technology-savvy investors. But gaining that knowledge can sometimes be a challenge for fund employees who are pressed for time and busy focusing on strategic goals.

We’ve made it our mission to be a constant source of information for our hedge fund clients and partners - our Hedge IT blog is a prime example! In addition to our wealth of blog posts, we have a dedicated Knowledge Center devoted entirely to helping educate investment professionals on what’s new and exciting in hedge fund technology. Below are a few of our most popular knowledge centers, easily configured by category to help you find exactly the information you’re looking for.

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Before making the decision to move your IT infrastructure to a data center or colocation facility, there are a number of important criteria to evaluate. Let's review some of the most important.

Tiers – Data centers can occupy one room, one or more floors, or entire buildings. They are classified in terms of Tier Levels from Tier I to Tier IV, with Tier IV being the most advanced in terms of redundancy, security and availability.

Energy costs – As the cost of energy increases, analysts predict IT energy costs today are but a fraction of what future costs will be at current growth rates. Additionally, current trends indicate that server operating costs have the potential to equal their capital costs within three to five years.

Design innovation – Data center design is becoming increasingly important for improving operational efficiency. The foundation of data center design philosophy contains five core values: simplicity, flexibility, scalability, modularity and sanity.

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Happy New Year! We hope your 2012 is off to a great start. Whether you’re launching a new fund this year or ramping up your existing firm, you should (and probably do) know how important your firm’s technology is and will be to your success. More so than ever, technology plays a critical role for hedge funds and investment firms, allowing them to streamline processes and communication, get a leg up on competitors in the marketplace and provide investors with the utmost confidence. 

One of your first technology decisions of the year is your most important one: do you want your fund to operate on a traditional, on-premise technology infrastructure or utilize the cloud? This decision will affect many of your other technology choices, notably the type of office hardware and connectivity you will require, so we urge you to do your due diligence and select the option that best suits your firm’s needs.

Once you’ve made your infrastructure selection, there is a seemingly endless list of additional technology requirements for your firm. Luckily, I’ve whittled them down here to focus on some top technology priorities for you to focus on as you enter 2012.

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Over the course of the past two years, we have seen a drastic increase in the number of new hedge fund launches occurring in the marketplace despite challenging economic conditions. To assist managers who are considering starting a fund, our friends at Financial Technologies Forum (FTF) held a full-day workshop this week at Bayard’s in New York City. The “How to Launch a Hedge Fund” event covered a variety of important topics related to starting a hedge fund, including:

• Up-Front Decisions & Vendors Required
• Legal Issues
• Client Services
• Marketing & Sales
• Technology
• Operational Concerns
• Partnership Accounting & Performance Measurement
• Compliance
• Reporting
• Investor Due Diligence

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Last month we released our Guide to Technology Outsourcing for Hedge Funds. Weighing in at 24-pages it is packed full of great content including a handy sample technology RFP (request for proposal).

We’ve all heard the saying, “there are no stupid questions,” but when it comes to technology it is easy to feel undereducated. Knowing what to ask a hedge fund technology provider not only makes you look smart (or smarter!) but also ensures you get the right solution.hedge fund tech guidebook

In this article we’ll look at questions around Staffing, Client Service Model and User Support for your hedge fund technology Request for Proposal. Next Thursday we’ll give questions for DR Plans, Information Backup & Retention and Data Security.

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We recently hosted a panel at the Hilton New York to talk about some of the key challenges facing hedge funds today, as well as current trends in hedge fund technology.

Panelists included: Vinod Paul, Managing Director at Eze Castle Integration, Anurag Bhardwaj, Head of Strategic Consulting at Barclays Capital, and Vishnu Varma, Chief Technology Officer at Tiger Global Management.

Below is a summary of some of the key topics discussed at our recent seminar:

Hedge Fund Market Trends & Challenges

It’s been an interesting year thus far for hedge funds and other alternative investment firms, as inflows have been high but performance low. In addition to performance challenges, hedge funds continue to deal with increased competition for investments, and thus asset-raising remains a hurdle for many funds – regardless of their size or strategy.

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Last week, we hosted a breakfast seminar New York City for emerging hedge fund managers and new hedge fund launches. Our goal was to provide attendees with actionable takeaways they can use as they get their fund off the ground.

Our expert panel of speakers provided great insight into the hedge fund industry and the key considerations for new managers who are launching funds. Panelists included Tim Kennedy, Senior Vice President at Eze Castle Integration, Ron Geffner, Partner at Sadis & Goldberg, Robert Becker, Head of Capital Introduction at Jefferies & Co., and Bryan Borgia, Managing Partner at Topwater Investment Management.

Below is a summary of the key topics discussed at our “Launching a Hedge Fund” event:

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If you missed it yesterday, we presented the results of our 2011 Hedge Fund Operations & Technology Benchmark Study. The purpose of this study was to examine the key front, middle and back office systems and technologies being used by alternative investment managers today.

As a means to gather this information, Eze Castle Integration surveyed over 200 hedge funds and alternative investment firms in 2010 regarding their hardware and software, applications, communications devices, and more. Below is a short summary of our findings*:

Respondent Profile

Of 223 total firms who responded, 56% reported their assets under management to be less than $250mm. 17% of our respondents had an AUM of between $250-750mm at the time of the survey, and 27% had more than $750mm in assets.

The majority of firms indicated that they had just 1 office location, which was in the United States. Only about ¼ of respondents had an international office and/or multiple office locations.

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