There’s been a lot of discussion within our industry lately on the Cloud and it’s benefits for firms of all sizes. But there are still a lot of people who strongly believe that the Cloud is a tool for small sized businesses only.
In our experience, we have seen large and small asset managers alike adopt the Cloud. Their main reason: the Cloud provides increased business agility to individual end users and to the organization as a whole.
For individual end users, the Cloud means easy access (read the TNS report summary here). For clients, the Cloud allows for access to mission critical systems and data anywhere, any time, whether that be on a laptop computer, iPad, or smart phone, in the office, on the road, or in meetings with clients, which is key in the money management industry. The only requirement is an Internet connection regardless of the device used or preferred by the end user.
For the organization as a whole, business agility means being able to instantly scale, making IT departments very happy. Need another 75 users? No problem. Doubling your AUM or trading volume? Non-event. Opening remote offices? Same deal.
As long as the money manager’s business is managing assets for clients, the Cloud will continue to see wider adoption regardless of the size of the organization. Technology is a means to an end in the investment industry. The Cloud model is currently the best technology for the job.