By Michael Brown 1

Due to the security and data ownership elements and general nature of their business, hedge funds may have reluctant to move to cloud technology. But that has been changing. Now hedge funds may be the next big targets for MSPs that specialize in the cloud.

As this article from hedgeweek.com explains, nearly 87 percent of (surveyed) hedge fund managers are using cloud services at least in some form in conjunction with their business. Here are some of the benefits identified by the article.

Mobility

“The concept of being able to execute and manage trading or hedging strategies from a mobile device, whether it’s DMA (direct market access) or dynamically setting and tracking risk limits in real-time from the mobile device, at any time and everywhere is something that institutional investors like a lot.”

Speed of action is critical in the investment world. Managers need to monitor investments and markets and they need to make transactions, so mobility and speedy access (regardless of location) is crucial. These benefits will make it easy for MSPs to sell these services to hedge fund managers.

Connectivity

“One of the reasons for continued cloud adoption is that people are simply becoming increasingly frustrated with the fact that their technology does not connect to anything else.”

Hedge fund managers use a wide range of tools to analyze markets, research investors, execute orders and perform many other functions. They often manage multiple hedge funds. MSPs that can offer cloud solutions that allow these managers to interconnect all of these types of tools, improving efficiency.

“Managers require not only better technology, they need it to be connected to reduce manual tasks. Our role over the next couple of years will be to do things that funds can’t do today such as find the right investors and market their funds.”

Security

“The fact that the SEC is now treating cybersecurity seriously shows the level of responsibility that technology providers have to their clients, especially those running billions of client assets”.

Cloud providers are mastering security, and that should help alleviate the concerns hedge funds have about the cloud. However the SEC has recently created comprehensive guidelines and to evaluate companies’ protocols to ensure the safety of sensitive data. If MSPs work with providers that are compliant with SEC’s guidelines, they should be able to put  hedge fund clients’ minds at ease.

“…the ability for hedge fund professionals to work anywhere at any time not only gives them an edge, it demonstrates to prospective investors that they are in total control of their business.”

Hedge funds represent a new and rapidly growing segment of cloud customers, and the time is right for MSPs to target them as prospective clients. Hedge fund managers are realizing the multitudes of benefits of the cloud, and MSPs with cloud knowledge will be able to offering them incredible value to their business.