Hedge IT Blog

Taking a page from the Cloud Forum (quite literally), today we look at the top three winning reasons hedge funds are gravitating towards the cloud.  Not surprisingly, these reasons center around increased efficiencies, improved technology environment and cost savings.

Scalable, Flexible and Available
The cloud offers firms the option of scalability without the serious financial commitments required for infrastructure purchase and maintenance. With cloud services there is no vendor lock-in or implied commitment beyond duration so firms have the flexibility to easily evolve their IT environment.

Another benefit is the ability to seamlessly add more users and/or computing resources to match the firm’s requirements. A hedge fund private cloud can deliver the infrastructure, bandwidth and network resiliency to accommodate business requirements for high speed access, storage and applications.

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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 I was 10 years old, a large part of our school’s fifth grade graduation ceremony involved singing songs. I will admit to not remembering very much from that day, but one memory which has stayed with me to this day is our rendition of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All.” The song has very much remained one of my favorites because it sends so many important messages.

The song’s main messages include the importance of having dignity and self-respect. If you want your life to have meaning, start by making sure you stand for something regardless of the challenges this may require. Developing and practicing dignity and self-respect is the foundation upon which everything else is built upon, including your career.

In the field of project management, resting all your techniques and methodologies upon a foundation of dignity and self-respect will give you and everyone around you tremendous trust and confidence.

Here are 12 ways to kick-start your quest for dignity and self-respect at the project workplace:

1. Put the client’s interests ahead of your own. You are where you are because the client needs you. Strive to deliver more value than expected. You will be rewarded for it down the road.

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According to Forbes, the most basic mistake employees make at the workplace is underdressing. Your dress code not only says a lot about you as an individual, but in many ways provides the very platform upon which your work is branded and showcased.

Similarly in the field of project management, experienced project managers know that communication is at the core of the successful completion of any project undertaking. Make no mistake – communication is not the only measure of project success any more than dress code is in the workplace. But the fact remains, an amazingly thorough presentation can be overshadowed by a presenter's inappropriate attire, and a project can likewise be won or lost through the channels of its own communication.

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There is no question that having high intellectual intelligence improves your chances of success in corporate America. But history has shown time and time again that IQ alone will not get you through the dark days and tough times.

Consider why it is that when certain people walk into a room it brightens up, or why we usually seek advice from certain people. Why would you never question what certain people have to say, but never trust what some others usually say?

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If someone were to ask me which project management skill is most crucial to the success of a hedge fund project manager, I would say communication. Take it a step further and ask me which part of a project initiative is most important to a project’s success, and I would say project structure.

I am a big proponent of transparency. Project structure serves as a base for the assignment of project tasks to team members because it greatly increases transparency across all levels. When done effectively, it helps control costs, analyze risks, measure performance and break project complexities into manageable parts (building blocks). Breaking a project down into applicable building blocks of structure (called “work packages”) is most effective because it forces the project manager to know something about the essential aspects of project planning.

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Many Project Managers will typically describe their work as part art, part science, and part major headache. Balancing all of the elements of a complex project is an act that takes time to learn, especially in a fast-paced, highly demanding industry. The list below highlights a few of the most common challenges Project Managers face during their day-to-day lives.

1. Making unrealistic deadlines realistic.

Some would argue that most projects have "schedule slippage" as a standard feature rather than an anomaly. The challenge of many managers becomes finding alternate approaches to the tasks and schedules in order to complete a project "on time" or to get approval for slipping dates.

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As the Director of Project & Technology Management at Eze Castle Integration, I am often asked, “What exactly is Project Management?”

The Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading non-profit association of Project Management professionals, defines the term in the 4th edition of its guide, Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). According to this document, Project Management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.”

Right.

The term Project Management is vague in itself. Personally speaking, when people ask me what I do, the question always leaves me reaching for an image or phrase that never comes quite in time for me to answer with any cohesiveness. Sometimes, to get a clearer definition of what something is, it is best to start by defining what it is not.

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Earlier this week, we shared some helpful tips for multitasking when your project management workload seems overwhelming. Since we know that the challenges of juggling several projects simultaneously are ongoing, following are a few additional strategies to help you manage your busy schedule:

Specialize Selectively

During extremely busy times (especially when you have a lean staff), project resource roles tend to blur. As such, Project Managers usually turn into project secretaries in order to stay on top of project activities and keep things moving (sending dozens of emails, requesting updates, sending reminders, etc). When this happens, don’t forget that your primary responsibility is still to lead and motivate. If necessary, don’t hesitate to rotate team members to different posts and/or move your resources in/out of roles — to the point that it makes sense for your project. Whether you are a Project Manager with a larger team and more specialized staff, or running lean with an “everybody wears many hats” approach, the key is to use your resources where they will be most productive at that particular moment in time.

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Modern technology has created a fast-paced, convenient and portable electronic world with high expectations, little patience, and even less tolerance for error. In the fiercely competitive project management arena, more than ever before, project managers are challenged to do more with less:

• They are challenged to bring in more profit with less overhead;
• They are challenged to be more productive in less time; and
• They are challenged to take on more projects with a thinner support mechanism.

In order to meet the demands of the society, project managers are often forced to juggle ten or more ongoing projects simultaneously; projects with various complexities, durations and sizes. Often, project managers handling multiple projects are simply overloaded or frustrated, and some wish for better days (and/or better jobs).

The reality is simply this: Multitasking is a requirement in project management today.

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