Cloud9 recently participated in the TabbFORUM Fixed Income 2017, where we sat down with Terry Roche, Principal and Head of FinTech Research at the TABB Group, to talk the scalability, resiliency, and performance capabilities of cloud technology in the capital markets.
Watch the full video of their discussion HERE.
The Scalability of Cloud
As capital markets firms increasingly see the cloud as a viable alternative to traditional hardware solutions, they discover the transformational benefits when it comes to service provisioning. “I think one of the highlights is the ability to scale up and scale down virtually effortlessly,” Greg Kenepp related to Terry Roche. “When you think about the focus on capital markets in terms of being efficient, having good economics, and reducing costs, the ability to scale your environment like this is impactful.”
The cloud frees firms from needing fixed data centers and enables them to quickly roll out a technology solution globally that can be managed from one central location. From a service provider perspective, Cloud9 was able to utilize Amazon Web Services cloud to deliver capabilities on a global basis without deploying massive amounts of capital, allowing us to rapidly expand operations into Europe and Asia.
Creating a High Availability Product
“For capital markets, performance and resiliency are always top of mind,” says Roche. “But can a cloud service deliver the type of security, resiliency, and performance that this industry would require?”
In the case of Cloud9, we’re able to offer a more secure, reliable service than traditional telephony by utilizing modern technologies like WebRTC and taking advantage of the capabilities available in the cloud.
“In terms of resiliency, the cloud is the cloud, and it’s up to your team how you take all the capabilities your cloud provider makes available to create high available, resilient infrastructure,” says Kenepp. “It’s no different than if you took your own equipment and wanted to deploy it in your own data center – if you want a high available service, you have to take steps to make sure it is highly available.”
Adapting to Changing Workflows
As workflows change and employees are becoming more mobile, switching to cloud technology seems like the natural progression for most firms. With cloud-based technologies, traders are able to work effectively while traveling or at home, and firms no longer have to worry about disruption in disaster recovery situations. In the case of Cloud9, our mobile capabilities in addition to the easy provisioning of our service enables firms to be connected with other office locations, as well as their counterparties, in a matter of minutes.
“We had traders who had offices in Sao Paulo, Puerto Rico, and New York with expensive infrastructure,” says Kenepp. “They adopted our product and were able to trade anywhere in the world, completely seamless with the counterparties. It is definitely the way of the future.”
