RFA: Best Outsourced IT Provider – While security has always been at the forefront for funds, this year has tested defence practices and security frameworks utilised by the sector globally. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed firms to identify and quickly mitigate any new security gaps. This new landscape has accelerated the adoption of advanced security and control measures to survive.
“Covid-19 and the impact of social distancing have become the ultimate tech disrupter, driving investment and digitalisation innovations,” says George Ralph, managing director, RFA, ”This growth has been reflected in an increase in the need to manage distributed workforce transformations and a need for new solutions for business productivity, collaboration, and mobility via the cloud and data management.”
He notes how these growth areas are not unique to the RFA client, rather, they mirror the broader trends in the global hedge fund industry. Specifically, hedge fund managers are growing more comfortable with moving data to the cloud in an effort to enhance operational value. However, they do still find data management to be one of their most significant challenges and its cited as one of their top spending priorities for the year ahead.
Ralph identifies a shift in acceptance and adoption of cloud-based technology: “This marks an inflection point for the hedge fund industry. Firms of all sizes must adapt to the digital working world. Those hedge fund managers that are fully or partially using the cloud will continue to see improvements in operational efficiency. Further, fully and partially cloud-based managers will accelerate migration to the cloud to improve data security and cybersecurity and better protect their intellectual property. There has previously been a trust issue around using some newer technology, but the tide has turned and whether through choice or circumstance, firms are starting to embrace the tech available and understand it’s benefits.”
He says this positions RFA to deliver and manage cloud solutions via Microsoft public cloud tools, AWS, or Google: “We do this with industry-leading data protection and security technology, providing a layered solution tailored to meet specific client requirements.
“RFA has and continues to offer the industry a leading Managed Detection Service offering all-inclusive anomaly detection, facilitating real-time risk containment 24/7/365. Solutions that are compliance tailored to regulatory requirements provide hundreds of clients with enhanced data and application control to reduce privacy risk and more.”
Ralph addresses the complexity managers have to deal with when looking to create operational infrastructure that works best for their business: “The opportunity for managers is to match their infrastructure to ambition. They need to ensure their technology stack, support and services can meet the functional requirements of today while also unlocking the full potential that digitisation can offer for tomorrow.
“RFA matches clients’ ambitions and simplifies the stack by providing best-in-class technology solutions and automated business processes, supported by expert staff”
Looking ahead, Ralph is resolute in the firm’s focus on its objectives, which have not changed, despite the environment: “As the year marches on we will continue helping our clients access and harness the robust and secure tools made available by specialised cloud technology. These can be productivity or data-focused and can improve investment decision-making, enhance communication and collaboration and streamline labour-intensive manual processes.”
George Ralph
Managing Director, RFA
George Ralph CITP, has successfully founded three technology firms along with C-level advisory services include M&A to numerous firms. George is a true leader and has been managing teams internationally, and leading technology transformation projects for over 20 years. A certified GDPR, Cyber assessor, Auditor, Architect and widely experienced cybersecurity and RegTech professional, George has extensive technical experience in network and server architecture, large scale migrations utilising leading technology brands, and IaaS offerings.
