Eze Castle Integration, a provider of strategic IT solutions and private cloud services to hedge funds, has announced the results of its independent “Cloud Adoption Trends in the Investment Management Industry” survey, which was conducted in partnership with IDG Research.
Featuring responses from 125 senior-level executives, the survey found that more than eight out of 10 hedge funds and investment firms use or are deploying the cloud for IT infrastructure or application services.
The strong adoption rate of cloud services indicate increased emphasis on the benefits the technology is bringing to the financial industry. The survey found that the top three factors influencing adoption of cloud services are the ability to reduce IT infrastructure costs (85 per cent viewed as extremely important/important), increase speed of technology deployment (83 per cent) and simplify IT management (82 per cent). Other factors include improved access to resources on-demand and the ability to take advantage of built-in disaster recovery functionality.
The survey also showed that private clouds are the models of choice, with 71 per cent of those using cloud services indicating they were using private cloud platforms. Additional findings include:
Fifty-seven per cent of respondents began their use of the cloud with basic business or office functionality, including email, files services and mobility. Thirty-four per cent indicated their first use of the cloud was for hosting of financial applications.
Eighty-four per cent of respondents indicated cost-effectiveness as the top reason for selecting their private cloud service providers. Security policies and procedures, and knowledge of cloud within the financial industry were close second and third factors scoring 82 per cent and 81 per cent on extremely important/important respectively.
Seven out of 10 respondents ranked concerns about security as well as information governance and meeting regulatory requirements as significant barriers to cloud deployments.
“Eze Castle Integration is the leading provider of private cloud services to alternative investment firms worldwide. This leadership role means we must provide outstanding worldwide cloud services as well as educational resources and knowledge for the entire industry. By partnering with IDG Research, we are reinforcing this commitment by delivering objective insight into how and why firms are adopting cloud computing technologies,” says Bob Guilbert (pictured), managing director of Eze Castle Integration. “This survey and the recently launched Cloud Forum are two invaluable resources hedge funds should utilise to explore how cloud services can support their business operations.”