Hedge IT Blog

On most days if you asked what I was doing on that exact day two years prior I wouldn’t be able to tell you, but today is different. Today is the second birthday for Hedge IT, our sweet, informative blog. So I know exactly what I was doing two years ago – I was writing and posting our first Hedge IT article, aptly titled “Welcome to Hedge IT.”

Sticking with the theme of ‘welcome to…’ and giving a node to our upcoming Hedge Fund Cloud Summit, today’s post is a welcome to the changing world of IT – now that the business world is going to the cloud.

Paradigm shifts are commonplace in the IT world. When talking to an IT veteran about cloud, he/she will likely reflect on the move from centralized computing (mainframes/mini-computers) to decentralized computing (Windows NT/Novell) and now back to centralized computing with the cloud.

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It’s the most talked about trend in technology these days. Then again, can it even be considered a trend anymore? Cloud computing has evolved into a credible technology solution for hedge funds and other financial services firms, allowing them to reduce their upfront capital expenditures and focus their priorities on investment decisions and other operational tasks.

But with so much buzz in the industry about the cloud, it seemed fitting to organize an event dedicated solely to this topic. Alas, it’s finally here.

In just two short weeks, Eze Castle Integration will be honored to host the 2012 Hedge Fund Cloud Summit – a half-day conference in New York City designed to dive deep into the critical areas of cloud computing that hedge funds and investment firms are compelled to think about on a daily basis.

The Cloud Summit will bring together more than 100 of the investment industry’s best and brightest technology and operations professionals and will feature expert speakers from some of the leading hedge funds, prime brokers and technology application partners in the industry.

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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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Are you tired of talking about the cloud yet? Good. Neither are we. In fact, we recently devoted our first webinar of the year to the topic. You can download the webcast replay of the event here. A summary of the key topics discussed during the webinar is below.

Increased Adoption of the Cloud

According to our managing director, Vinod Paul, over 80 percent of the new clients we brought on board last year are utilizing the cloud in some way, shape or form. As hedge funds continue to battle for institutional dollars, the smaller firms, in particular, are able to leverage the cloud for enterprise-level technology at an often reduced cost.

Speaking of cost, it’s one of the main drivers for firms moving to the cloud. Three to five years ago, hedge funds typically had to pay $300-500K dollars to set up an initial IT environment. In today’s rapidly changing landscape, firms are looking to pay less money out-of-pocket, as well as decrease their initial deployment times. With the cloud, resource deployment and allocation only take days or weeks instead of months.

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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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When it comes to clouds we have Private, Public and Hybrid as the primary flavors. Private Clouds have the privilege of being segmented further but more on that in a minute.

According to Search Cloud Computing, a Private Cloud (also called internal cloud or corporate cloud) is a term for a proprietary computing architecture that provides hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall.

Attributes of a Private Cloud, versus a Public Cloud, include providing a hedge fund firm more control over their data, excellent client service/response times, and greater integration with hedge fund vertical specific applications such as order management or portfolio management systems.

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As 2011 comes to a close this week, we thought we’d share some of our favorite (and most popular!) blog posts from the Hedge IT stream. As expected, topics such as cloud computing, Dodd-Frank and technology outsourcing were popular among our readers.

We expect these trends to continue to permeate the blog through 2012, and we’ll continue to expand our reach by bringing you relevant and interesting content to read (and watch) come next year. If you have suggestions or feedback on the Hedge IT blog, please feel free to contact us.

Alas, here are our most popular hedge fund technology blog posts from 2011:

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As we mentioned in our Help Desk FAQs article a few weeks ago, we recently completed a comprehensive profile on our Help Desk team. This includes an in-depth look at all areas of the department, such as the various sub-groups housed within the Help Desk, the team’s client request escalation procedures, professional development and ongoing skills enhancement provided to all team members and more.

While completing this document, we also created a video depicting our Client Support Center and the team members in action. (You may also remember last year’s video, featuring our director of Help Desk services, Dan Kummer, and associate director, Andre Chinkan.) This year’s video introduces viewers to several members of the Eze Castle Help Desk staff, who take us through many of the team’s most important functions and services. Check it out!

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Earlier this week, we looked at IT Outsourcing with hosted services. In today’s blog post, we will look at the next hot topic discussed at our ‘Exploring Cloud Services for Hedge Funds’ seminar last week in London -- Outsourcing Hedge Fund Middle and Back Office Operations.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, more and more hedge funds are considering outsourcing their middle and back office functions in an effort to reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage.  Let's have a look at some of the questions raised at the seminar:

What are the catalysts for hedge fund managers to outsource their middle and back office operations?

• Desire to reduce operational risk by performing tasks that were not performed previously (i.e. daily cash reconciliation, collateral management, etc.)
• Inability to consistently align operations and accounting personnel with levels of trading activity
• Technology infrastructure and/or personnel that are insufficient to handle current or proposed strategies (i.e. new asset classes or increased trading volume)
• Opening overseas offices or taking on a global mandate which requires after-hours support
• Failure or serious questions arising from Investor ODD audits that need to be resolved
• Change in human resources (i.e. departure of personnel), which forces a firm to rethink its model

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Over the past few weeks, we have been hard at work putting together our submission for this year’s Help Desk Institute Team Excellence Awards. These awards honor top Help Desk teams that consistently demonstrate excellence in customer service and support, focusing specifically on the people, processes, and technologies of the teams.

In talking with our Help Desk leaders, specifically Dan Kummer (our Director of Help Desk Services) and Andre Chinkan (Associate Director), we identified a number of questions they hear repeatedly from our clients regarding what to expect when working with the Desk. So, to help clear some of these up, we’ve put together a set of Help Desk FAQs.

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