Content area
Full Text
Note: See related articles on pages 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 and 32.
Challenge: With computing power and data center efficiency more important than ever, Wall Street firms must optimize their resource allocation in order to maximize performance while minimizing cost.
Why It's Important: Cloud computing is gaining momentum quickly on Wall Street. In a 2010 Wall Street & Technology/ InformationWeek Analytics survey of 144 capital markets executives, 40 percent said their firms already use some type of cloud, while an additional 31 percent said they are considering it. "The current trend is how to optimize your footprint and minimize what you have to expend in capitalization, while maximizing performance," says Mark Popolano, a senior advisor with Ineum Consulting and a former AIG CIO. The cloud fits the bill perfectly, he notes.
Where the Industry Is Now: The debate over what exactly cloud computing is continues to rage on Wall Street. Tellingly, in our 2010 cloud survey, 54 percent of participants tagged cloud computing as "a marketing term used haphazardly."
Cost savings often are cited as a driver by firms using the cloud, as at any one time firms may be actively using just 80 percent of the platforms in their physical data centers, notes...