Network Security Threats & Best Practices for Hedge Funds
As part of our ongoing thought leadership, we often host educational webinars on a variety of topics relevant to hedge fund operations and technology. For our most recent webinar, we decided to dive deeper into the topic of security, as it still remains one of the biggest priorities and concerns for hedge funds.
Speaking on the webinar were two great security experts: Steve McGeown, VP of Marketing and Product Management at eSentire, and Steve Schoener, VP of Client Technology here at Eze Castle Integration.
Below is a short summary of the key points addressed by our expert speakers.
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Introducing Our Newest Addition: Cloud Forum!
As any regular Hedge IT reader knows we are passionate about cloud computing and its use at hedge funds. We are also committed to being a constant source of information and education. 
So…drumroll please… We are excited to unveil the newest member of the Eze Castle Integration thought leadership family – Cloud Forum!
On the Cloud Forum you will find rich information:
- What is Cloud Computing
- Cloud Architecture
- Operating in the Cloud
- Cloud Security
- Cloud Computing Dictionary A-Z
- Cloud Resources: Articles, Videos and Events
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Hedge Fund Cloud Summit Draws a Crowd in New York
The atmosphere in the room was one of excitement and anticipation. Not something you’d expect for a conference dedicated to cloud computing? Think again.
We hosted our first-ever Hedge Fund Cloud Summit earlier this week at the Sofitel New York, bringing together over 100 operational and technology professionals from the investment industry for what truly was an exciting day.
Event hosts Bob Guilbert and Vinod Paul kicked off the afternoon by offering their perspective on the changes within the hedge fund market relative to cloud computing and why it has steadily become a reliable technology option for firms of all sizes and strategies. Five years ago, most hedge funds were involuntarily relying on traditional on-premise infrastructures marked by intricate Comm. Room build-outs and heavy upfront capital expenditures. The average cost for servers, storage, networking and other equipment? Two hundred to five hundred THOUSAND dollars.
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Clouds of Change for IT Pros: Cloud Admin's the new Sys Admin
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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A Sneak Peek at the Upcoming Hedge Fund Cloud Summit
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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Opalesque TV Zooms In on Cloud Computing at Hedge Funds
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
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Doing Your Cloud Homework: Answering Legal, Tech & Security Qs
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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What Makes Hybrid Clouds Appealing?
Public, private and hybrid are the three flavors of cloud computing. As the market continues to mature, interest is growing in hybrid clouds by enterprises looking to get the best of both worlds.
According to the CIO Global Cloud Computing Adoption Survey (January 2012), hybrids are growing in popularity with nearly 20% of enterprise deployments using this model today. Hybrid clouds, which mix the benefits of private and public clouds, offer flexibility and choice of deployment methods without requiring trade-offs around performance, control and security.
While not ideal for many hedge funds today, it is still important to understand the concepts and benefits behind hybrid clouds as their applicability will continue to increase. Let’s take a look at what makes hybrid clouds appealing to some organizations.
There are Private Clouds (mine) and there are Private Clouds (yours)
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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Top Five Cloud Computing Trends for 2012
At the end of last year, we predicted that cloud computing would remain a hot technology trend in 2012 – particularly on the security front. As more and more firms move to this platform, we continue to see the technology and processes within the cloud evolve to support the growing needs of its users.
Following are five key cloud computing trends to look for in 2012:
1. Education will remain important.
The industry came a long way in 2011 in terms of learning about the cloud – what it is, how it works and more. But believe it or not, there is more to be learned. In 2012, we expect conversations to go to a deeper level and focus on topics such as cloud security, operational best practices within the cloud and cloud technology specifics.
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