ISSUE 27 MARCH 2016

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HEDGE FUND TECHNOLOGY SEC WARNS OVER CYBER-ATTACK REPORTING Regulator fires shot at firms during annual conference NEWS 05 IN SYMPHONY Symphony CEO David GRATICULE TO END FORTRESS INFRASTRUCTURE ARRANGEMENT Gurle outlines his 06 Macro firm to spin out of platform in May NEWS ambition AXIOMA TO ACQUIRE CONCEPTONE REPORTING UNIT Firm to take on risk and regulatory offering NEWS 08 COMPANY PROFILE 20

WHAT CONCENTRATION RISKS DO CTOS FACE, AND HOW SHOULD THEY RESPOND?

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CONTENTS

London Thavies Inn House 3-4 Holborn Circus London, EC1N 2HA T+44 (0)20 7832 6500 F +44 (0)20 7832 6501 New York 200 Park Avenue South Suite 1603 New York, NY 10003 T +1 646 891 2110

EDITORIAL TOO MUCH CONCENTRATION Head of content, HFMTechnology Alex Cardno Alex Cardno +1 646-891-2117 [email protected] Reporter Jasmin Leitner Concentration risk appears to have taken a back seat to cyber-security in the hedge fund technology +44 (0) 20 7832 6657 [email protected] priority list but that doesn’t mean it is any less of a threat to fi rms. Head of content Indeed, CTOs who spoke to HFMTechnology this month were all too aware of the risks that exist Paul McMillan +1 646 891 2118 around too many IT services being placed in the hands of too few service providers. [email protected] Regulators on both sides of the pond have had little to say on the issue thus far, with the FCA COMMERCIAL devoting one line to it in its recent cloud computing consultation. But with full guidance expected from Associate publisher Lucy Churchill the UK regulator later this year, don’t be surprised to see scrutiny of the issue intensify. +44 (0) 20 7832 6615 [email protected] This month, HFMTechnology takes a look at some of the key concentration risks facing CTOs and asks Publishing account manager what can be done to mitigate against this (see p10-13). Alexandra Bethanis +44 (0) 20 7832 6618 We also profi le Symphony’s CEO David Gurle to fi nd out more on his plans for creating a secure, [email protected] instant messaging framework which he hopes will become the standard bearer for communication CONTENT SALES across fi nancial services within three to fi ve years. (see p20-21). Group head, content sales Gavin Clink We encountered a man less concerned with the label of ‘Bloomberg killer’ ascribed to his fi rm since +44 (0) 20 7832 6592 [email protected] it launched last year, and more concerned with cornering the buy-side having already established a Content sales broad stable of sell-side fi rms as both investors in and clients of his fi rm. +44 (0) 20 7832 6511 Elsewhere, Coller Capital’s head of IT service delivery Ian Flavill gives his take on hybrid IT solutions [email protected] PRODUCTION (see p14) and Mark Ridgway, partner at Allen & Overy, articulates the key points of the forthcoming EU Head of production trade secrets directive (p24), something CTOs and COOs will both need to be aware of. Claudia Honerjager We also feature a winners’ supplement on p16-19 showcasing all of the winners from last month’s Sub-editors Luke Tuchscherer HFMTechnology US Awards event in New York City. Mary Cooch Alice Burton Enjoy the issue. Charlotte Romeyer Designer Jack Dougherty MARKETING Sam Matthews +44 (0) 20 7832 6574 THIS MONTH’S MUST-READS [email protected] Group head of content Gwyn Roberts +1 646 891 2115 [email protected] Chief executive Charlie Kerr

CONCENTRATION RISK SECRET CTO COMPANY PROFILE The risks facing CTOs and how An anonymous CTO discusses Symphony sidesteps they should respond dual data back-ups ‘Bloomberg killer’ label p10 p15 p20 ISSN 2054-3034. Printed by The Manson Group. © 2016 all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publishers. No statement in this magazine is to be construed as an invitation to invest in hedge funds.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 3 REGULATION FCA IT guidance expected this Spring

The FCA expects to issue final guidance for UK-regulated firms on outsourcing IT to the cloud in either April or May this year, HFMTechnology has learned. An FCA spokesperson said the regulator was still going through responses to its consultation, which closed on 12 February, before it releases full guidance later this year. While an exact publication date for the full guidance has not yet been finalised, the FCA’s spokesperson told HFMTechnology the regulator expected to release its conclusions around April/May. The FCA began its consultation in Aima said this could effectively “elevate” contractual clause with a provider was not November last year on providing guidance documents, such as its own guide to sound realistic. to regulated firms around outsourcing to practices for cyber-security, to obligatory Requiring physical access to data storage the cloud and other third-party IT services. requirements. could also make it difficult for firms to While many of the proposals in the Concerns were also raised about the use public cloud services, thereby making consultation were welcomed, hedge fund practicalities of aspects of the proposed the FCA’s suggested requirement to ensure trade body Aima responded with a warning guidance. access to business premises problematic. on certain proposals contained in it. Aima said it agreed with the FCA’s Aima therefore suggested the FCA Chief among these was a warning about suggestions on monitoring concentration provide clarification that visiting the office the FCA’s proposition that firms should risk but said it will be problematic to of the cloud service provider would be identify current industry good practice on implement for large service providers sufficient. risk management, which Aima said could with many clients, and smaller firms with Provisions for an “exit plan” suggested by result in a “chilling effect on the amount confidential client lists (see feature, p10). the FCA were also seen as problematic by and type of guidance that it is possible Similarly, Aima said verifying suitable Aima, as it would be “extremely difficult” for Aima and other industry bodies to arrangements for dispute resolution were to enforce compliance to these obligations produce”. in place was useful, but negotiating a on a service provider.

PEOPLE MOVES Hudson Structured appoints CTO as it preps first fund

Hudson Structured Capital Management consultancy Anchor Solutions, following a (HSCM) has taken on former IT consultant seven-year stint as head of IT application and ex-UBS IT executive David Jackson as management USA at UBS Investment Bank, CTO as its new management team looks to according to his Linkedin profi le. raise assets for its fi rst fund. His hire is one of several key hires made at “BUSINESSES DO NOT WANT Jackson joined the Connecticut-based HSCM, which will focus on re/insurance and IT SERVICE PEOPLE BEING structured credit fi rm in February, nine transportation assets operating a dual-strategy months aft er the fi rm was founded by focused on structured opportunities across the DRACONIAN OR BEING THE managing partners Michael Millette and insurance and reinsurance spectrum as well as ARBITERS OF RESTRICTION” David Andrews, according to information equipment fi nancing across the transportation obtained by HFMTechnology’s sister title Alt sector with a specifi c focus on aviation. IAN FLAVILL, HEAD OF IT SERVICE Credit Intelligence. Hudson Structured opened its offi ces in Before joining HSCM, Jackson spent eight Stamford, CT in January and fi led an ADV DELIVERY, COLLER CAPITAL years as the owner of Microsoft Gold certifi ed with the SEC on 29 February. SEE P14

4 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 INFRASTRUCTURE REGULATION QFR moves to hedge fund hotel SEC warns over

QFR Capital Management (QFR) has Steinman has since joined Element cyber-attack moved into a hedge fund hotel after assets Capital Management, his LinkedIn profile tumbled to $103.5m amid a turbulent showed. reporting period for global macro traders. Hedge fund hotels typically provide New York-based QFR, which managed emerging managers with office space The SEC has warned that the hedge funds will around $3.5bn in 2013 according to reports at lower rates, often combined with face much tougher enforcement penalties if at the time, now operates from office space technology, infrastructure and operational they fail to report cyber breaches. provided by IT firm Eze Castle Integration. support. Speaking at the SEC Speaks annual confer- The discretionary macro firm has also QFR would not comment on the ence in Washington, deputy director of the SEC seen several recent staff departures, but a restructuring of its operations or reasons division of enforcement Stephanie Avakian said source close to the situation insisted the behind its AuM decline. the SEC was aware some registered firms were firm is not closing. The firm’s 13F filings from 2015 failing to report cyber breaches. The regulator Director of technology Glenn Souther revealed it had significant exposure to produced no data to back this up but said it has left around the end of January following Argentina, with the firm taking positions heard anecdotally that companies are reluctant QRF’s move from its Bryant Park location in companies such as Buenos Aires-based to report breaches in case they face an investi- to 529 Fifth Avenue. private bank Grupo Financiero Galicia, gation over their own systems and controls. Operations associate Sohel Hussain and agricultural firm Adecoagro and energy Avakian said registered firms fear they could portfolio manager Pablo Duran Steinman firm Pampa Energia. be hit with enforcement action as well as being also left the firm that month. In its ADV brochure, the firm said it a victim of a cyber-attack. She moved to quell Nancy Kelly, the firm’s CCO, departed invests in a range of liquid and illiquid fears by insisting the SEC has a high bar for last year leaving general counsel David instruments, including sovereign bonds, when it would take enforcement action but Lestz to assume her responsibilities from credit default swaps, interest rate swaps, warned firms they will face harsher penalties if October, according to the firm’s ADV local fixed income instruments, options, they do not self-report. filing. futures, and distressed debt. “There is a spectrum of cyber attentiveness and some firms effectively have nothing so it is something we have to look at,” said Avakian. PEOPLE MOVES “But we are not looking to second guess good faith decisions. What if we do think an enforce- MayStreet appoints ex-Citadel ment action is appropriate? As with any case, we will assess the company’s co-operation with executive law enforcement in determining the appropri- ate outcome. The manner of co-operation has Capital markets technology firm MayStreet KnightDirect unit, part of KCG Holdings in long been set out. has appointed ex-Citadel sales executive David Jersey City, responsible for firm-wide sales “Whether a company self-reported to law Streltsoff as head of business development. and marketing of algorithmic trading tools. enforcement is a significant factor. We will give Streltsoff joined the New York-based firm His hire comes amid an attempt by the credit to companies that self-report. While in January as head of business development firm to expand its presence in the asset companies might be reluctant to report a cyber and a member of the management team after management space, particularly targeting incident because of the potential for investiga- a brief stint at electronic trade consulting firms such as quants which use algorithms tion, it would be a significant disclosure failure firm VIA Capital Group and nearly three to trade. where no action is taken. We are keenly aware years in sales for Ken Griffin’s Citadel, a “David is a proven, revenue-growth of challenges companies face on cyber-security Chicago-based $25bn AuM hedge fund. engineer and business leader with over 12 and our approach appreciates these challenges.” He will be responsible for growing the years of success driving record-breaking The office of compliance, inspections and firm’s market data, order entry and trade sales and organizational performance,” said examinations (OCIE) said cyber-security analytics software at Maystreet, which was Flannery. would be one its key exam focuses for 2016. founded in 2012 by Patrick Flannery and “For 2016, we’re now actively expanding In September, the SEC’s latest cyber-security Michael Lehr. the scope of our business with banks, asset risk alert outlined six areas of focus ahead At Citadel, Streltsoff was responsible for managers and exchanges.” of the regulator’s next set of inspections. The selling and marketing the firm’s agency Maystreet’s product offering includes OCIE guidance, following its initial risk alert algorithmic trading tools, and for growing research, latency monitoring and compliance published in April 2014, centres on governance, the electronic trading unit. Prior to Citadel, software and market data recording for the training, vendor management, access, data loss he was a director in Knight Capital’s US equity, options and futures markets. prevention and incident response.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 5 NEW INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS Graticule to end Fortress infrastructure arrangement in May

Graticule Asset Management Asia (Gama) Th e platform will remain open to the eSentire will cease using Fortress Investment possibility of adding external managers www.esentire.com Management’s affi liated manager platform, but its expansion has become a lower marking the exit of the platform’s only priority in the wake of its decision to shut eSentire, which provides IT threat protec- current external manager. its $2.5bn range of macro funds. tion and managed security services, has Adam Levinson’s $4.5bn fi rm, which Th e affi liated manager platform was launched the eSentire DNS Firewall, a was formerly Fortress’s Asia Marco Funds launched by Fortress in 2014 to allow the cloud-based providing cyber protection for Unit before spinning out last year, will fi rm to take economic interests in start- any device on its network. The product is stop using the Fortress platform from up and established funds and provide a powered by eSentire’s Active Threat Protection service, while the May, according to the $70.5bn New York- fee-for-services structure off ering external DNS Firewall leverages data from Cymon, a global open threat headquartered fi rm’s annual results. funds access to technology, infrastructure intelligence aggregator, to feed its whitelists and blacklists. Th e Fortress platform provides and client relationships. However, it has infrastructure services including been slow to attract external managers Hexis Cyber Solutions technology and back offi ce support. looking to outsource such functions. www.hexiscyber.com Gama’s move follows the closure of Fortress will continue to hold a 30% Fortress’s global macro division last year, economic stake in Gama until the end Hexis Cyber Solutions has enhanced and the winding down of its externally of 2016, at which time the stake will be its HawkEye G integrated detection invested Partners Funds arm. diluted slightly to around 27% from 2017 and automated response capabilities. Fortress’s affi liated manager platform will onwards, according to a source familiar Its HawkEye G Release 4 offering will continue providing infrastructure to inter- with the situation. include native, network sandboxing nal funds managed by Fortress, including It is unclear what infrastructure capabilities powered by malware analysis platform Lastline, its Centaurus Global Event fund and the arrangements Gama – which declined to an integration that will add multi-protocol content extraction Fortress Convex Asia funds, but will not be comment – has put in place beyond May and network sandbox malware analysis to the HawkEye G servicing any external managers. this year. product line without requiring additional appliances.

Digiterre REGULATION www.digiterre.com Mifi d II budget platform launched Digiterre has integrated its Communica Compliance Engine software with Micro- Frost Consulting has launched a soft ware quire signifi cantly increased transparency soft Dynamics CRM. The integration will platform aimed at assisting asset managers from asset managers over how research allow fi nancial services organisations with research budgets in the wake of budgets are allocated. using Microsoft Dynamics CRM to keep transparency proposals laid out in the Frost Consulting said its product ad- a centralised audit trail of all compliance processes as well forthcoming Mifi d II regulation. dressed the issue of “broker vote” systems, as supporting documentation linked to the correct client or Th e fi rm’s FrostRB platform is intended which it said caused research budgets to investor records in the CRM system. to allow asset managers to establish be mis-aligned with investment strategies, monetary values for specifi c unpriced resulting in fund cross-subsidisation and Virtus Partners research products, and construct overpayment for research that managers www.virtusllc.com/ monetary research budgets that meet intend to use. Mifi d II research spending requirements. In response, its solution off ers a com- Credit-focused administrator Virtus It also provides fi rms including hedge plete multi-asset class solution that har- Partners has gone live with Misys funds with a research valuation, budgeting monises research budgets between equity FusionBanking Loan IQ as its full-service and reporting framework that generates and fi xed income portfolios for multi-asset agency administration and bank port- customised, multi-asset class research products, thereby eliminating cross-asset folio loan administration platform. The budgets at fund level, and directly aligns class research subsidization. installation was completed in approximately three months research budgets and individual fund According to research cited by Frost and will allow Virtus to expand its agency administration investment processes. Consulting, asset managers spend ap- services to include document tracking, compliance moni- Its launch comes in response to Mifi d proximately $20bn a year of client money toring, loan making, syndication and distribution. II research spending proposals, which re- in commissions on external research.

6 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 BLOCKCHAIN REGULATION PwC appoints ex-hedge fund OCIE: SEC not a manager to explore blockchain ‘gotcha’ regulator

PwC has appointed ex-Copenhagen Capital Michael Rendell, PwC’s transformation and SEC Office of Compliance Inspections and founder Patrick Spens to explore the potential innovation leader, said: “We anticipate growing Examinations (OCIE) director Marc Wyatt of blockchain, distributed ledger technology demand from right across our client base for has looked to reassure managers that it is and encryption. Spens will help the firm help understanding the implications and po- not a “gotcha” regulator. Speaking at the SEC consider the future implications and possible tential applications of blockchain, and Patrick is Speaks annual conference in Washington last applications for blockchain technology both in one of the UK’s leading blockchain experts. month, Wyatt said the OCIE is transparent financial services and other industries. “While still in its infancy, we see the poten- about its exam priorities and is not looking His appointment builds on a renewed focus tial for blockchain to disrupt and revolutionise to spring surprises. on blockchain technology at PwC, which the way organisations do things and want Wyatt, who become permanent OCIE hired 15 blockchain experts in January in a to be at the forefront of understanding the director in November 2015, said his division bid to grow the firm’s FinTech offering. impact and applying this technology.” is not enforcement and is not looking to It also reflects a growing interest in Spens’ credentials for the new role include take action against firms. “We are not trying blockchain technology among financial membership of the Whitechapel Think Tank to be a gotcha regulator,” he said. “This is services firms, with experts quoted in recent steering group, where he is credited with the third year in a row we have published analysis but HFMTechnology’s sister title ACI playing a role in a cross-industry and public our priorities so we have told you what we arguing that blockchain will reduce the time sector forum convened to understand the are going to be focused on in the coming needed to move capital and improve the opportunities and challenges presented by years. We also issue countless risk alerts security between investors and counterparties. distributed ledger technology, or blockchain. such as cyber-security. Spens joins from UK regulator the FCA, Blockchain technology consists of ‘blocks’ “We told you what we are going to look at, where he is head of market monitoring and of data in a digital ledger, and is believed to be we did our examinations then reported what has overseen the regulator’s market abuse highly resistant to malicious tampering and, we saw. Even if you weren’t part of the exams agenda since 2009. Before joining, he had therefore, potentially lend itself to widespread then you got the data gleaned from them.” a six-year stint as EMEA head of cash and uses. In efforts to promote greater transpar- Before Christmas, the OCIE launched a alternative equity trading at Citi, before ency, the ledger also creates a single shared rapid-fire sweep of high-yield mutual funds launching Copenhagen Capital in 2005 and view of the blocks, which every participant in in the wake of Third Avenue Management running the firm for four years. the network can access simultaneously. closing its fund and suspending redemptions. Managers reported having to send information to the SEC within hours SOFTWARE of receiving requests for information. Last month, the SEC said it would focus Inalytics opens NY office and on liquidity controls, cyber-security and compliance systems and controls in its 2016 makes US sales hire exams. In November, the SEC published a risk alert raising concerns about the Portfolio analytics firm Inalytics has signalled Asian markets with the most sophisticated tier role of outsourced CCOs and the level of its expansion intent by opening a New York of- of plan sponsors and asset managers. compliance monitoring. The SEC is also fice and hiring ex-Twin Capital executive Sarah “I am excited to be leading the expansion in planning to introduce mandatory third- Colvin to oversee the firm’s US sales effort. the US market where the service will deliver party compliance reviews for registered Colvin joined Inalytics in February as significant value to asset owners and managers. investment advisers in addition to OCIE. managing director for the Americas, following Fintech is offering real innovation and choice in Speaking in Washington, Diane Blizzard, a stint at David Simon’s Twin Capital Man- the way data is used to improve decision mak- associate director for Regulatory Policy agement where she spent just over a year as ing – Inalytics is at the forefront of this.” and Investment Adviser Regulation in the vice-president. She was previously director of The firm’s software allows asset owners to Division of Investment Management, laid marketing at KG Funds Management. analyse the success of individual managers’ out the regulator’s outstanding concerns. Inalytics has also hired Jennifer Youde, a investment decisions and verify if a manager She said they want to ensure the reviews former managing director at Goldman Sachs invests in an investor’s preferred style. were not too expensive, conducted to high Asset Management, as a strategic consultant to Inalytics offers analysis across asset classes, standards and without conflicts of interest. the research and coding team. including equities, fixed income and credit. Its Last year Wyatt told managers he was not Colvin said: “Inalytics’ service and expertise database analyses more than 100 million invest- looking to take “CCO scalps” after a number have been proven in the UK, European and ment decisions on behalf of 45 clients. of enforcement actions against COOs.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 7 ACQUISITIONS PEOPLE MOVES Axioma to acquire risk/regulatory Ex-Opus president reporting unit of ConceptOne starts new admin

Risk management software firm Axioma The two entities are expected to continue Former Opus Fund Services president Ste- has agreed to buy the regulatory reporting to work closely together following the phen Giannone has launched a new hedge and risk reporting units of New York-based acquisition. fund administration business with two ex- investment technology firm ConceptOne. The ConceptOne solutions will continue Opus colleagues. The deal will see ConceptOne’s regulatory to be offered under the ConceptOne brand, Theorem Fund Services opened its Chicago compliance solutions transferred to in addition to being integrated into Axioma head office this month alongside additional Axioma’s risk offering while ConceptOne’s solutions. offices in Oregon and New York. It is hoping Fund Services unit, which provides data Gallo said, “We look forward to to hit $1bn in AuA by the year-end on the warehousing, is not part of the acquisition continuing to work closely with the units back of deals it has already secured with an and will continue to operate as an to be acquired by Axioma and are fully undisclosed number of managers. independent entity. committed to maintaining best-in-class Giannone co-founded Theorem with former “This acquisition will enable Axioma service levels for our fund service clients.” Opus head of fund accounting Mikhail Da- to offer asset managers and hedge funds a Macquarie Capital served as financial vidyan. Ex-Opus senior vice president Melissa global regulatory compliance solution that is advisor and Royer Cooper Cohen Bockwinkel is also part of the Theorem team. part of a fully integrated enterprise-wide risk Braunfeld LLC as legal counsel to The firm‘s offering, which targets emerging solution,” said Dr. Sebastian Ceria, Axioma’s ConceptOne. Bryan Cave LLP served as managers, covers reporting, investor relations CEO. “The industry wants automated, legal counsel to Axioma. and anti-money laundering. It also provides sophisticated solutions for managing its New York-based Axioma provides risk know-your-client (KYC) functions as well as disclosure requirements. At the same time, management services to asset managers, banking services, company accounting and regulatory reporting demands are increasing institutional investors and hedge funds fund management tax solutions. and becoming more frequent. With Axioma’s including risk exposure analytics, portfolio Sister title HFMWeek revealed in November core strengths, we can quickly scale and stress-testing tools and pre-trade scenarios. that Giannone, Davidyan and Bockwinkel had fortify ConceptOne’s existing capabilities to The firm was founded by CEO Sebastian left Opus when the administrator restruc- support those regulatory demands.” Ceria in 1998 and has 12 offices across the tured its business while a number of senior Ken Grant, chairman and co-founder of USA, Europe, Asia and Australia. staff departed. ConceptOne, will move to Axioma as part of ConceptOne is part-owned by “We have taken all the hard-learned lessons the move while Anthony Gallo will remain shareholders which also have stakes in from our past experiences in the fund admin- in post as managing director of ConceptOne Concept Capital, a mini prime broker istration market and applied them to this new, Fund Services. acquired by Cowen Group last year. multi-service offering,” said Giannone.

ACA Compliance Group rogue trading, manipulation, equity funds of several internal in as part of the UK National has acquired Decryptex fairness, and other issues in and external clients. Prior to Cyber-Security Strategy Financial Laboratories. order to protect their firms JPM, Lumley was a director to combat cyber-crime, Founded in 2014 by ex-Moore from reputational, regulatory, of operations with GlobeOp particularly in the business Capital executive Daniel and financial risks. Financial Services from 2002 to environment. The overall aim Cashion, New York-based 2007 and an executive director of the scheme is to instill a Decryptex uses algorithmic Administrator Custom House with Deutsche Bank between basic standard organisations search technology for capital Global Fund Services has 1999 and 2002. can follow to decrease their markets trade analysis and appointed JP Morgan private vulnerability to cyber-crime. NEWS IN surveillance to allow firms equity and real estate services Capital Support has been The ‘Plus’ variation of the to efficiently and proactively office lead Sebastien Sacre presented with the Cyber certificate involves a more BRIEF identify anomalous as managing director of its US Essentials Plus certificate, detailed assessment of the trading activity within their headquarters in Chicago. a badge presented to company taking place to organizations. Today, it is The firm has also recruited JP organisations demonstrating ensure that they meet the used by large investment Morgan Fund Services global a high level of dedication stricter requirements. managers, broker-dealers, product head John Lumley towards maintaining a high and private fund managers to to lead sales for the Americas, standard of cyber-security. empirically surveil trade and based in its New York office. The Cyber Essentials Plus For more information on market data for suspicious At JPM, Sacre managed fund certificate is a government- these news stories go to patterns, insider trading, administration for the private backed scheme, first brought hfmtechnology.com

8 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 PEOPLE MOVES TECH TALK Ross Levinsky, Chief Eze Castle Integration makes Technology Offi cer at HBK CTO change Capital Management

Eze Castle Integration has promoted customers’ sensitive data. Eze said in a What is the biggest technology challenge Steve Schoener to the role of CTO, statement that joining the roles of CSO facing hedge funds today? replacing William Tan who has become and CCO would improve the delivery of Two things: security and the wholesale technological the fi rm’s chief security offi cer and CCO. its services. changes that cascade from moving computation to the Schoener, a fi ve-year veteran of Eze John Cahaly, CEO of Eze Castle cloud. Castle Integration, steps up to the role Integration, said: “Steve and Bill’s keen For the former, the volume and sophistication of from his previous position of senior vice understanding of our clients and their threats is growing alongside client and regulator president for client technology. environments will be critical in propel- expectations of strong defense, detection, and He joined the IT and cloud solutions ling the company’s next phase of growth remediation on the part of managers. fi rm in 2011 following two years spent as and enhancing user experience. As sea- For the latter, I believe the ever-cheaper variable- head of IT at DW Investment Manage- soned leaders with distinguished track cost model and rapid scaling offered by cloud vendors ment, a credit hedge fund now known records of success, I am confi dent they will capture an increasing share of our computing as DW Partners, which was formerly a will thrive in their elevated roles.” needs, but they will also prompt reconsideration of sub-adviser to Brevan Howard. Eze Castle Integration provides IT how we architect and deploy our applications. Schoener replaces Tan, who joined Eze solutions and private cloud services to It gives us the opportunity to revisit the last Castle Consulting as a service manager in more than 650 alternative investment few decades of our architecture and development 1997 before becoming CTO and manag- fi rms worldwide, including more than practices and start to align them with evolving styles ing director at Eze Castle Integration in 100 fi rms with $1bn or more in AuM. being driven by the tech industry. 2000, according to his Linkedin profi le. Th e company’s products and services In his new role, Tan will focus on include cloud services, cyber-security What will be the next big trend in hedge ensuring the security and privacy of services, technology consulting and fund technology? the company’s infrastructure and its outsourced IT Support. Technology that does not materially differentiate the investment process will be outsourced, and we will own many fewer computers in years to come – they’ll CYBER-SECURITY largely be rented from one of a few large cloud Equinix expands data centre vendors. What is the most critical piece of offering software at your firm? It’s a tie between our investment analysis platform, Equinix is to invest more than $4.5bn in move which added 40 data centres and 3m our trading/trade processing systems, and our data acquisitions and expansion with the immi- square feet of colocation space to the fi rm’s stores. We need all three running excellently. nent opening of three new data centres. stable and doubled its capacity in Europe. Th e California-based data centre Steve Smith, president and CEO of Is there a growing technology concern provider opened a new International Equinix, said: “Global businesses are in- emerging from employees? Business Exchange data centre in Tokyo creasingly realizing that interconnection is Our concerns are driven by the increasing scale of our yesterday, and will open similar new sites essential to deliver a rich, ubiquitous user operations and stringency of performance demands, in Dallas, São Paulo and Sydney in the experience, with the agility and actionable and by the ongoing shifts in infrastructure towards coming weeks, taking the total number of insight to enable new business models the cloud. We need to continually improve the quality data centres it owns to 149 in 40 countries and enhanced productivity. Th is will be of our development practices, learn new ways of across the globe. even more apparent as businesses locate architecting software, and focus on accuracy and Equinix, which caters to hedge funds at their data closer to the edge to support the reliability. its data centre sites in London, New York ‘Internet of Th ings’.” and Chicago, said the new openings would Th is year’s planned expansion follows on What is the most expensive technology add more than 4,000 new cabinets of from the addition of fi ve new data centres outlay for the firm? capacity and nearly 200,000 square feet of opened by Equinix in New York, London, People. We work hard to find great people, and we new data centre space to its platform. Singapore, Melbourne and Toronto in work even harder to give them opportunities, help Of the $4.5bn of new investment 2015. In addition to its acquisition of Tel- them grow, and make our firm a compelling place at planned this year, $3.8bn was spent on the ecity Group, Equinix also acquired Bit-isle which to work. acquisition of TelecityGroup in January, a in Japan for $275m in November 2015.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 9 COVER STORY

INCREASED IT OUTSOURCING AMONG HEDGE FUNDS IS EXPOSING FIRMS TO MORE CONCENTRATION RISK, HOW SHOULD CTOS RESPOND? BY ALEX CARDNO

ll businesses face some form of concen- And, as pressure mounts on IT budgets, the hedge fund tration risk but for hedge funds there is faces concentration risk whether it goes with a single out- a plethora of different concentrations on sourced IT provider or a selection of different providers the technology side posing potentially for different services. “I think it’s maybe a bit more of an significant risks. The issue is intensified issue than people think it is,” admits the CTO of a $5bn by a prevailing trend of hedge funds – hedge fund. traditionallyA quite lean organisations – outsourcing some, “In recent years there has been a bigger move towards if not all of their IT functions, making them reliant on the outsourcing technology in the industry, so for example security and efficiency of third-party providers. there are certain data centre firms getting more business,

10 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 not just from hedge funds. But in certain areas there is a acquisitions among vendors exacerbates the challenge of tendency to cluster a litt le, so it’s defi nitely something to handling concentration risk. Deals such as SS&C’s acqui- think about.” sitions of Citi’s admin book and Advent Soft ware, or Equi- Concentration risks arise when outsourced services or nix’s $3.6bn acquisition of rival TelecityGroup in 2015, products are provided by a limited number of service pro- has arguably heightened the threat of concentration risk viders or are concentrated in limited geographic locations, among vendors because it reduces the choices managers according to a defi nition released by the US Department have around providers. of Justice. For hedge funds of all sizes, there is simply no way of avoiding the need to place some part of the tech- Attempts to diversify nology function in the hands of a third party, whether that Samer Ojjeh, principal and US head of advisory services is part of an outsourced IT agreement or an obligatory ar- for alternatives at EY, contends that managers are re- rangement with a service provider, such as an administra- sponding to this by att empting to diversify their systems tor or prime broker. and by trying to forge closer partnerships with vendors. He says: “Managers want to have their own view of the Vendor scrutiny risk in their portfolio so that’s why they try to diversify Against this backdrop, Ray Bricknell, managing director of their systems from counterparties including fund admin- Behind Every Cloud, says vendor liquidation is the num- istrators and custodians because there is usually a lot of ber one aspect of concentration risk people don’t think overlap in the systems used by hedge funds and their ser- about enough, whether they use a single end-to-end pro- vice providers.” Ojjeh also argues that as vider or opt to outsource to multiple vendors. a result of consolidation, more service Bricknell explains that ‘one stop shop’ vendors who de- There are just a handful of providers are exploring the potential of scribe themselves as being 100% aligned with hedge funds firms who do firewall security building their own soft ware, prompting tend to be relatively small fi rms, meaning their revenues more managers to try to partner with are oft en pegged to serving a small number of clients. “Th e well for our industry, so a vendors off ering less mature products, way these fi rms operate tends to be that they suck in the breach on their systems and helping these vendors mature their IT of the client in a reasonably non-standardised way, then products so that the manager can have scale headcount to deal with the issues involved with that would be devastating more control over their concentration and end up with a diffi cult to scale commercial model, CTO of $800m fund risk. which means they are a constant aggregation risk (to the He says: “Managers are looking to hedge fund),” he explains. manage the risk of not having enough For smaller funds, Bricknell adds, this is a particular infl uence over the vendors when they enhance or update problem because they tend to buy from an end-to-end their products. Th e risk is of managers being a smaller fi sh provider, which means they are limited for choice. in a big pond instead of being a big client, and that is the Hedge funds with bigger budgets can lessen this risk by risk managers are trying to avoid having.” outsourcing diff erent things to diff erent vendors, but Brick- Th is may be a realistic aspiration for managers when nell says there is still concentration risk here. “So you might dealing with smaller, more niche vendors, but the issue get a vendor who just does disaster recovery as a service, is not as clear cut for key vendors such as administrators, which means you end up splitt ing service acquisition across custodians and prime brokers, all of which are obligatory a range of vendors; you still have a concentration risk with relationships for a hedge fund to have, and all of which just one vendor doing one thing for you,” he adds. will have some insight, ownership or control of certain el- For managers of any size, the use of niche services also ements of a fund’s data. presents a key concentration risk. “Th ere are a lot of simi- “Th ere is concentration risk at the administrators and lar applications that diff erent funds use like logging emails prime brokers but there is no good strategy for it,” says the or email review, or fi rewalls,” says the CTO of one $800m CTO of the $800m US fund. AuM US-based fund. “It’s like having all the eggs in one basket in your value “Th ere are just a handful of fi rms who do fi rewall securi- chain, if one thing breaks you are in a bad state, and the ty well for our industry, so a breach on their systems would industry is naturally going in that direction because fewer be devastating. Security providers are a tremendous con- people want to be in that admin/PB space.” centration risk because there are not many handling lead- Ojjeh says the larger, more mature hedge funds have ing edge security very well and you can’t go to just any this issue on their radar and are starting to ask deeper fi rewall vendor. questions of their key service providers on the technology “Bloomberg is another risk, because not many people side in response. “Mature hedge funds have been asking have a back-up provider for that service. We have alter- more detailed questions about cyber-att ack preparedness nate data feeds but don’t have the instant messaging that and penetration testing, disaster recovery, data retention Bloomberg off ers.” and archiving,” he explains. For many hedge funds, the recent spate of mergers and “Some managers are even asking about social engineer-

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 11

COVER STORY ing protection and how data is being protected by their theory”, it would be especially problematic to implement admin or PB from that perspective, because their trading for large service providers with many clients, and smaller strategy is their holy grail.” firms with confidential client lists. Data centres are another area of serious potential con- “The FCA is simply cautious not to see firms put all centration risk hazard due to their nature of being clus- their eggs in one basket,” said an FCA spokesperson. “We tered near trading exchanges. There is good reason for don’t have much to elaborate on yet as we are still going this: hedge funds want low latency and the only way to through the responses to the consultation, but we expect ensure that is to use a data centre near an exchange. For to issue full guidance by April or May this year.” example in the US, many hedge funds will use data cen- The SEC meanwhile has not released specific guidance tres in New Jersey or Connecticut. In the UK meanwhile, on technology concentration risk, but does advise firms Canary Wharf and Slough are the locations for large data reliant on third parties for elements of their technology to centres used by hedge funds operated by the likes of Equi- have a business continuity plan in place as per its cyber- nix and Virtus Data Centres. “Slough has been the num- security guidance, released in April 2015. ber one choice for proximity or low latency solutions for The SEC also cites IAA compliance rule 206(4)-7 as a a long time,” explains Bricknell, citing its close proximity guide for what it requires from firms, specifically a foot- to London but also its location outside a flood plain, in note within that regulation which states: “We believe that contrast to low-lying Canary Wharf. an adviser’s fiduciary obligation to its clients includes the But Bricknell says that even the advantage of being obligation to take steps to protect the clients’ interests closely located and outside a flood plain can present prob- from being placed at risk as a result of the adviser’s inabili- lems. “At one stage in Slough, it got to the point where it ty to provide advisory services after, for example, a natural was almost impossible to find capacity in the data centre disaster or, in the case of some smaller firms, the death of because of the ultra-low latency the managers wanted,” he the owner or key personnel.” says. In the meantime, CTOs are clearly “As a result it became very expensive. By definition, aware of the issue and for certain ele- those hubs have to be close to the exchanges with nano- Some managers are ments of concentration risk such as second delays, which means there is major exposure to an even asking about social exposure to an administrator or prime outage at those sites.” broker, there is no easy solution. “We Similarly, even with a good arrangement in place, con- engineering protection and protect ourselves by having the en- nectivity to data centres is not always so straightforward how data is being protected cryption key so no vendor can access and presents another concentration risk. As the $5bn fund by their admin or PB from our data, but if we lost the encryption CTO explains: “We use a data centre that’s further away keys we’d be in very bad shape,” says the because we rely less on low latency, but that does present that perspective, because CTO of the $800m US fund. some issues around the connectivity we can obtain.” their trading strategy is their Like many technology issues, protec- Connectivity is another risk to be aware of, one which tion against concentration risk often appears to be offset by larger data centre providers offer- holy grail boils down to the budget allocated to ing multiple internet service providers and thus diverse Samer Ojjeh, EY spend on IT. “I think CTOs are very routing from multiple providers, according to George aware of this but protecting against it Ralph, managing director at Richard Fleischman and As- comes down to the budget they are sociates. given,” says Ralph. “The obvious thing is to think about all the potential Many facets of risk existing bottlenecks in a business, and it should be con- Concentration risk clearly exists in many facets of the sidered as part of risk management, because the board technology function at hedge funds, but is perhaps an should be given the chance to make an informed decision issue that garners less attention than things like cyber- weighing up cost versus risk.” To mitigate this, Ralph ad- security. Regulators, so far, have had little to say on the vises firms to perform functions such as random checks issue from a technology standpoint, with the only recent on staff activity, automated documentation, hardware reference to the issue contained in the FCA’s proposed maintenance, updated firmware on hardware, hardware guidance on cloud computing in November 2015. support, manually testing for replication failure over con- While the 15-page document had plenty of detail figuration, virtualising servers, diversifying router con- around outsourcing guidance, the specific issue of vendor nectivity and choosing good IT partners. concentration risk was addressed with just one simple Bricknell meanwhile, recommends split-vendor models line, advising firms to “monitor concentration risk and despite the risk. “There are a number of single points of consider what action it would take if the outsource pro- failure many vendors don’t address, so you should diversi- vider failed”. fy your environment,” he says.“It gives you complete ven- Aima, in a response part-authored by CTOs, said that dor diversity so you can spin up into a provider’s capacity while it agreed the FCA’s suggestions were a good idea “in but it also saves you money.”

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 13 COMMENT HYBRID SYSTEMS: WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR

IAN FLAVILL, HEAD OF IT SERVICE DELIVERY AT $17BN LONDON may also be changed to meet requirements imposed on BASED SECONDARY INVESTOR COLLER CAPITAL, GIVES A PERSONAL the provider by bigger clients, and you as a smaller client have to just go along with the new version because that’s VIEW ON THE POTENTIAL PITFALLS OF HYBRID IT SOLUTIONS what you have signed up to. As long as the infrastructure of that standalone chunk is plugged in, it can be properly managed and secure, but ybrid IT has become a buzzword but you don’t want that compromised by a third-party part one that is complicated, in my view, by of your ecosystem. the whole cloud discussion. So sometimes it is best to follow the sheep on utility True hybrid IT to me is a mixture services but if you’re clear about what is integral to your of elements. So you might make use of IP, you may decide those are the sort of things you want utility compute and things that can be to develop and host yourselves and have a bit more Hbought off the shelf and plugged in to your IT ecosystem. control over. There is a degree of policing necessary here A good example is a HR system. Why build one from a technology standpoint, but it is a very fine line for when you can buy a SaaS product sitting in the cloud, the CTO to tread. and you just need to ensure the security is good and Businesses do not want IT service people being that it is accessible for people to log into it in your IT IAN FLAVILL, draconian or being the arbiters of restriction, and as the environment? COLLER CAPITAL CTO, you certainly don’t want to be viewed as slowing But if your IT ecosystem consists of part dedicated up agility and innovation. compute, part multi-tenancy backup and a SaaS service There might be some accountability at the service such as salesforce or Office 365, you then have to work provider for the service delivery, but the real balancing out how many of those individual chunks of services act is for CTOs to be really clued up on what business from a workflow perspective need to be glued together, risk appetite is and how far that can be pushed. and there may need to be application programming You can buy 15 layers of redundancy and work out interfaces (APIs) between them. your critical times of the year, but if IT isn’t glued into Part of your workflow is ensuring the efficient running that business risk and able to make the right decisions, of your end to end services, so things that happen to your the risk is the business goes off and makes its own email system also need to happen to your CRM system. decisions in isolation and you end up getting nowhere. That means if you have a SaaS-provided HR system This is also an issue where networks are concerned. that isn’t upgraded the same way, your ecosystem can be The trouble is too many data centre providers have screwed up, probably while you’re dealing with a trading phenomenal redundancy in their data centres but have system or something else. either not partnered with good network providers to Something else to be aware of: all these different provide flexible networking. elements of IT are individual pockets, and what What various protocols are supported over that sometimes happens is a business can, if allowed to, buy network is critical in the trading business. discreet IT offerings, plug them in and claim they work. Networks have to be totally switchable and They may work for a particular function but the CTO transparent, and if they are in any way deficient your must take a broader view: is it operable and can business mobile experience over a WAN or an internet WAN continuity be sustained if a hybrid SaaS product is using a laptop and virtual private network or Citrix plugged into the ecosystem? connection, all of those remote abilities to do your job Also, are you happy with the security of the service? and connect back to your disparate network of vendors And what happens if say, one of your staff leaves but is no good. your SaaS provider doesn’t rescind their access to the The trouble is sometimes people are developing really CRM system because allowing people access to these good applications but not thinking about what it needs systems is not something run through your internal to have to work optimally over a network. directory, so might be out of sight, out of mind. If you haven’t got something to make that network Upgrades are another threat here. A SaaS service will manageable or optimal, you are buying yourself a lot of be changed at the will of a SaaS provider and sometimes trouble.

14 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 SECRET COO SECRET COO: DATA BACKUP ESSENTIALS

THE COO OF A $120M HEDGE FUND OUTLINES THE UPSIDE OF USING DUAL DATA CENTRES AS WELL AS A CLOUD PROVIDER

n the last five years cloud use has gone from being To create this meant setting up everything with one something people thought about to being an low-latency data centre provider, our primary, and integral part of the technology infrastructure of while that was happening we sought out a secondary most hedge funds. This is mainly because from provider to replicate the storage in a different location a cost perspective; cloud-based solutions are further away. As a result, if our primary site goes down, I relatively inexpensive compared to what it used can move everything to the secondary and be back up Ito take for a small to mid-sized manager to build out IT fairly quickly. Granted, we compromise a bit on latency infrastructure in-house. at the secondary location for a slightly cheaper solution, The real change here from an operational standpoint and like anything else having this arrangement takes is that until recently, each IT technology need was being upfront planning, adds a bit of extra expense and fulfilled by a different service provider and most data was extra work. being housed internally. But I think it’s essential, because once you Now, the issue of cloud is much more at the forefront To fully safeguard your outsource to the cloud you don’t own the and we are seeing big providers taking up a lot of market infrastructure housing your data anymore, so we all share. Of course, being cheaper makes cloud use an data, I think you also need to ask what the backup is and what happens easy sell to a hedge fund’s management team and takes need to be aggressive in the emergency scenario? How do you test that? away a lot of the operational headache and time cost of when negotiating To fully safeguard your data, I think you also overseeing different vendors, and having to negotiate need to be aggressive when negotiating vendor different contracts with them at various points in time. vendor contracts and contracts and push for tougher provisions on But my biggest concern with cloud use is data backup, push for tougher vendors in your terms & conditions. and entrusting much of my data to a single cloud provider We negotiated the contract with our cloud is what I would consider a risk. That means we have to provisions on vendors provider and with our primary data centre that says take a bit of a leap of faith with the cloud vendors we use, in your terms and if we don’t have access for x amount of time we can because it is really hard to verify everything the service conditions” immediately demand the data. They have to come provider is telling you about their own protections. through and provide that, so we can replicate our So for example, does the vendor really have certain system at our secondary site. service controls in place, and do they really have the Vendors will have built a streamline system they disaster recovery (DR) capabilities they say they do? And want to be able to easily roll out which is fine, but what do these marketing factsheets on DR they give you I want to know where my data is being stored and I want really even mean? You can’t take down their service across to know how to access it quickly and efficiently if there the board and test to see what it takes to go from no access is a problem. By having a backup data site, I don’t worry to data to fully recreating your storage and virtual servers. as much about it because you can’t really prepare for I take a lot of the marketing documents put out by Armageddon, but unless something enormous happens these firms on things such as DR recovery systems with we can just dump our primary. a healthy degree of scepticism. So we host things such as It seems obvious, but for the sake of a little extra our EMS and HR data in the cloud because it is cheaper budget from my board and a potentially awkward and more efficient than employing separate providers to conversation at the vendor contract stage, I’m host that, but we also back this up by placing our data into comfortable demonstrating to our investors that we’ve two geographically disparate Tier 3 data centres. put in place the best protections we can for our data.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 15 HFM TECHNOLOGY AWARDS HFM TECHNOLOGY US AWARDS

February saw delegates gather in the glamorous surroundings of 583 Park Avenue in New York City to celebrate the best in class off erings of service providers in the hedge fund technology community at the annual HFM Technology US Awards. Hosted by former BBC business journalist Declan Curry and judged by a panel of CTOs and independent experts, the event saw fi rms compete for highly-coveted Awards in 30 categories spanning the range of service provision including best mobile application, best new cloud application and best CRM system. As well as the winners, three categories received highly commended awards from the judges, refl ecting the close competition among fi rms in this space. HFMTechnology would like to congratulate all of this year’s winners and thank the event sponsors for making the awards possible.

BEST CRM SYSTEM BEST DATA MANAGEMENT PRODUCT BEST ANALYTICS SOLUTION Winner: Backstop Solutions Group; Collected by: Chris DeNigris, global Winner: Imagineer Technology Group; Collected by: Ari Treuhaft, Winner: HazelTree; Collected by: Tara Nolan, HFMWeek marketing manager; Highly Commended: Imagineer Technology Group director of Client Service

BEST EMS BEST DATA PROVIDER BEST DERIVATIVES SOLUTION Winner: REDI Global Technologies; Collected by: Liz Rodan, software Winner: Barchart OnDemand; Collected by: Matt Giarelli, sales director Winner: Numerix; Collected by: Carson Leven, Americas Sales engineer

16 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 BEST FUND ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE Winner: Eze Software Group; Collected by: Austin Mayeux, associate, BEST INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDER MOST INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION Business Development Winner: Options; Collected by: Alexandra Bethanis, HFMWeek Winner: PENSCO; Collected by: Mark Peck, strategic account manager

BEST IT SERVICE FOR SMALL AND BEST IT CONSULTANCY SERVICE BEST IT NEWCOMER START-UP FIRMS Winner: Eze Castle Integration; Collected by: Vinod Paul, managing Winner: KlarityRisk; Collected by: Kenneth Turchin, sales executive, SS&C Winner: RFA (Richard Fleischman & Associates); Collected by: Grigoriy director Technologies Milis, CTO

BEST MANAGED ACCOUNT PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY BEST MOBILE SOLUTION BEST NEW CLOUD HOSTING SERVICE Winner: NAV Consulting; Collected by: Tara Nolan, HFMWeek Winner: AlphaSense; Collected by: Matt Angrist, SVP Sales Winner: Agio; Collected by: Alexandra Bethanis, HFMWeek

BEST OMS MOST INNOVATIVE OUTSOURCED SOLUTION Winner: Eze Software Group; Collected by: Robert Lindon, Business Winner: Matsco Solutions; Collected by: Jim Serpi, director of Global BEST POST-TRADE TECHNOLOGY Development Operations Winner: ENSO Financial Analytics; Collected by: Dwaine Alleyne, partner

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 17 AlphaSense ‘‘ helps me

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AlphaSense is a registered trademark of AlphaSense, Inc. | www.alpha-sense.com/hfm BEST RISK MANAGEMENT PRODUCT BEST SECURITY SOLUTION Winner: Imagine Software; Collected by: Brendan Quinn, director Winner: eSentire; Collected by: Chris Siclare, director of sales North BEST TRADING AND EXECUTION TECHNOLOGY of sales Americas Winner: LMAX Exchange ; Collected by: Tara Nolan, HFMWeek

BEST TRADING PRODUCT BEST VDI PROVIDER Winner: Deltix; Collected by: Vinson Wong, professional services BEST WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Winner: Alphaserve Technologies; Collected by: Cameron Floyd, MD, manager Winner: AlphaPipe; Collected by: Alexandra Bethanis, HFMWeek Business Development

BEST COMPLIANCE PRODUCT FOR SMALL BEST COMPLIANCE PRODUCT AND START-UP FIRMS BEST NEW CLOUD APPLICATION Winner: Fidessa; Collected by: Matt Grinnell, compliance strategist; Winner: Cordium ; Collected by: Jordan Schwartz, partner and managing Winner: Edgefolio; Collected by: Leopold Gasteen, CEO Highly Commended: Compliance Science director; Highly Commended: Laven Partners

MOST INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION MOST INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR SMALL AND START-UP FIRMS BEST RISK MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SOLUTION - SINGLE PRODUCT Winner: BCA Research; Collected by: Stephanie Lee, senior business Winner: Investor Analytics; Collected by: Sherry Wolfe, head of client Winner: ALPS, A DST Company; Collected by: Jason Cholewa, VP, development manager services business development

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 19 COMPANY PROFILE SYMPHONY AIMS TO SIDESTEP BLOOMBERG

SINCE LAUNCHING GLOBALLY LAST YEAR, SYMPHONY HAS BEEN REFERRED TO BY SOME AS A POSSIBLE ‘BLOOMBERG KILLER’ BUT CEO DAVID GURLE SAYS THE FIRM HAS OTHER IDEAS BY ALEX CARDNO

ymphony may have att racted the moniker Perzo, an instant-messaging soft ware fi rm, was co-founded of “Bloomberg killer” in the media since by Gurle in September 2012 aft er stints at Reuters and launching its secure instant messaging ser- Microsoft , where he founded Microsoft Lync business, and vice globally last year, but its CEO David Skype, where he ran the Skype Enterprise business division. Gurle is keen to make a key distinction. Th e comparisons between his fi rm and Bloomberg “Bloomberg doesn’t care about what we seemed apt following an incident in April last year, before Sdo,” says Gurle, who doesn’t bristle at the label, but is quick Symphony had offi cially launched its platform globally. to explain what he views as the key diff erence between his During April 2015 Bloomberg’s terminal experienced fi rm and the media and data giant. an outage, preventing its users from receiving pricing “Th ey [Bloomberg] are an information terminal and data, executing trades, or communicating via Bloomberg’s not a communication platform provider. We have diff erent Instant Bloomberg messaging service. ambitions,” he explains. And it is in the communication off ering that the two “Bloomberg is focused on the capital markets, we fi rms really overlap. At the core of Symphony’s business is are focused on enterprise infrastructure. Th e overlap is direct messaging functionality executed, Gurle explains, in messaging; Bloomberg is present across 325,000 users, but a fully secure and compliant way. there are about eight million users in this market across It is as such, a direct rival to the instant messaging many verticals using communication tools every day. We systems off ered by Bloomberg as part of its terminal; want to have the biggest impact on that, and that is the and also Reuters – where Gurle worked for around seven DNA of Symphony.” years – which off ers the Th omson Reuters Eikon product, Gurle became CEO of Symphony in September 2014 seen until recently as the nearest direct competition to following the integration of his previous fi rm, Perzo, Bloomberg’s messaging service. with an instant messaging technology service called Live Speaking to HFMTechnology from his offi ce in the corner Current which was fi rst built by Goldman Sachs as an of Symphony’s 8,590 square foot suite in New York’s 1 internal messaging system. World Trade Center building, Gurle is enthused about a

20 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 shift in emphasis he thinks Symphony can bring to financial Jones, McGraw Hill Financial and Selerity, with more services communication. partnerships expected in future. “We come from the observation that the current As a result, McGraw Hill has integrated its S&P Capital communications landscape is ripe for change,” he says. IQ tool into Symphony’s platform, while Dow Jones “Businesses use email, conference calls, etc, and provides its news feed and Selerity aggregates data from communicate across silos of tools that are not tailored to Twitter feeds to deliver breaking news notifications to the enterprise of financial services. This landscape will Symphony’s platform. fundamentally change in the next five years. We are going to Given that it is only providing a small portion of what bring more interaction, security and compliance to the game. Bloomberg offers its subscribers, the price differential is Users will focus on the intention instead of on the tool.” significant. Symphony charges $180 per user each year while Bloomberg’s an annual fee is around $20,000 per user. Technical aspects At the time of the September 2014 integration, 15 firms The tool in question allows users to send instant messages invested $66m in Symphony Communication Services to through an online portal accessed through double-layered create the merger of Perzo and Live Current and provide verification security, with an SMS authorisation required working capital for the new entity. per individual login unless password save is set. Symphony was quick to follow up with another $100m The different aspects of Symphony’s platform are capital raising in 2015 – Google and UBS were subscribers supported by open-source software, which the firm is – to launch its Enterprise Edition in August 2015 to make committed to using, including the likes of Linux (Centos 7), Symphony available to companies that handle and transfer MongoDB, Nginx, Apache HBase and Solr, Elasticsearch, sensitive information in regulated environments. Sensu and Tomcat. As of March 2016, the firm has raised nearly $170m of Hosted in the cloud with Amazon and Google as investment from firms including Google, Goldman Sachs, providers, it allows individual users to create their own BlackRock, Citadel, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. groups for both internal messaging to different individuals While Gurle says he has no plans to raise further capital or business units and external messaging to clients and this year, he does not rule out a third funding round in 2017. prospects. Many of the large banks that participated in the funding The service facilitates both one-to-one chats and multi- rounds are now clients of Symphony, something that is chat groups similar to a web forum or WhatsApp group on causing Gurle to turn his attention more to the buy-side, a mobile device, while also offering public and private chat especially hedge funds and other asset managers. rooms and blast messaging for groups. “I am aggressive towards the buy-side. They tend to be Symphony has also created a ‘bring your own key’ the market-makers and we already have a big footprint on concept, meaning that, while all data flows across the sell-side. We are looking at hedge funds and also the top Symphony’s wires are encrypted, it is never in a position to 20 mutual funds like Fidelity, Wellington etc,” he explains. decrypt those messages. “The benefit to them as I see it, is the way they market “That means customer data is protected and ensures we intelligence becomes more effective and the way information are not in the business of making a business out of their is shared becomes simpler. Email is not interactive enough. data. We are just a utility in that regard,” explains Gurle. Traders use email to talk to the back office but it falls short Like its rivals, Symphony makes historical data when you need to keep a group of people in sync.” searchable but the company seeks to provide further For hedge fund CTOs, it appears to be a case of wait and security by creating search algorithms invisible to both the see. One CTO at a $700m systematic fund said his firm user and the firm itself to ensure that individual searches are would look at Symphony but would be reluctant to use it not identifiable. on top of its existing Bloomberg subscriptions. Its instant messaging service also allows users to integrate But a CTO at a $2.5bn hedge fund is more upbeat on its email, video and task manager to the functionality. prospects. “It’s a good platform with nice security. I like the model but it will take time to get traction,” the CTO says. The shoulders of giants Gurle’s vision is for current users of Symphony to be Gurle is forthright about offering the service through the using its platform for all business communications within Amazon and Google cloud offerings, arguing it allows three to five years. That is the first change he is hoping to Symphony to “ride on the shoulders of giants” with the bring about. The second change is the collaboration offered potential to scale at a lower cost. It has 110 developers by the platform becoming an operating system on its own. employed in-house to develop and maintain the service. “That transition will be more productive to the end user Communication is at the heart of what Symphony does, as they will spend less time conduct switching. Time sharing but some of the strategic partnerships the firm has struck things will shrink and that will mean more productivity,” indicate Gurle has further ambitions. he argues. “Our platform is not about making internal The platform’s global launch coincided with a series of communications more effective, it is about making your strategic partnerships with information providers Dow ecosystem more effective. It is a huge undertaking.”

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 21 SURVEY LOOKING AT THE CLOUD In this month’s readership survey, we take a look at internal compliance practices at hedge funds and assess what IT practices firms implement for their staff

his month’s readership research takes a look Q1 WHERE IS YOUR FIRM BASED? at internal IT compliance at hedge funds, asking readers in the US and Europe what sort of procedures they make employees adhere to, to ensure best practice. Amid intensifying regulatory focus on TIT processes and controls at investment advisers, internal USA EUROPE staff compliance is becoming a bigger issue for CTOs who 44% 56% not only must come up with policies and procedures, but increasingly have to create training programs to ensure the threat of staff error is malicious intent is mitigated as far as possible. Taking in a broad cross section of managers with respons- es from European fi rms (56%) just edging US responses, it seems many managers are taking a multi-faceted approach to ensuring internal compliance with IT procedures. Q2 HOW IS COMPLIANCE DEALT WITH WITHIN YOUR FIRM? Of those that responded, 83% made use of an employer handbook to document policies and procedures, while 61% of respondents included IT compliance in their employee contract terms and conditions. 83% Training has also clearly become a bigger priority, with 74% nearly three quarters (74%) of fi rms using onsite and/or off site training to bring employees up to speed with IT. 61% Employee passwords are also clearly subject to regular change at hedge funds, with 53% of survey-takers chang- ing passwords on a quarterly basis, while 18% changed em- ployee passwords on a monthly basis and just 12% changed passwords bi-annually, leaving 18% of fi rms allowing em- ployees to change their own passwords. 4% Where passwords are concerned, two-factor authentica- tion is a growing trend among hedge funds, with 59% of handbook Employee terms & conditions Contract training Onsite / offsite Other hedge funds implementing this and 40% not. Compared to last year however, this represents growth with just 40% of respondents polled last year using two-factor authentifi ca- Q3 HOW REGULARLY ARE EMPLOYEE PASSWORDS CHANGED? tion. 74% of fi rms still allow staff to bring personal devices to the offi ce for use in a work environment, compared to 26% who do not. Weekly Biannually Social media is clearly still a divisive issue among hedge 0.0% 11.8% funds with an interesting split among the fi rms that re- sponded to this survey. Monthly Employees None of the fi rms responding to the survey allowed em- 17.6% change ployees access to Twitt er on their networks, while just 5% their own of fi rms allowed employees access to Instagram and 11% al- Quarterly passwords lowed employees access to Facebook. 52.9% 17.6% Th is represents a signifi cant change in att itude from 2015, where 67% of fi rms polled said they allowed em- 22 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 Ȼ Ǎଥ୳ΪǏ SURVEY

DO YOU ALLOW STAFF TO BRING THEIR Q4 ARE PASSWORDS FITTED WITH TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION? Q5 OWN DEVICES FOR USE IN A WORK ENVIRONMENT?

Yes 59% Yes 74% No 41% No 26%

Q6 WHICH OF THE BELOW SOCIAL MEDIA SITES DO STAFF HAVE ACCESS TO? Q7 DO YOU PROHIBIT PERSONAL EMAIL USE ȞǍԨǏ ȿON YOUR OFFICE SERVER? Ǎ௄Ǣ 63%LinkedIn 5.3%Instagram Yes Facebook None of the 59% 10.5% above 21% No Twitter 41% 0%

Q8ɏHOW IS YOUR ARCHIVING / TRACKINGǍำற௛Ǐ SYSTEM DESIGNED? ployeesȞ to use Facebook and Twitter using the companyǍԨǢ network. By contrast, 63% allowed employees access to Linkedin, and 21% of firms responding denied access to all social me- 85%Third-party 5%Built in-house dia sites. Personal email is also a divisive issue, with 59% of re- Off the shelf spondents blocking its use at work while 41% allowed it. 10% This was also a turnaround on last year, where 60% of firms did allow staff to access personal email and just 42% banned such access. The vast majority of firms who responded (85%) use a third party to design their archiving and tracking systems, with 10% buying this sort of product off the shelf and just Q9 WHERE IS THE ARCHIVING SYSTEM STORED? ȐǍ̈́ਦǏ 5% building it in-house. Of those firms that use archiving, 43% stored this func- tion in the private cloud compared to just 19% who used the public cloud for this, reinforcing the trend of hedge funds’ preference for building out private cloud structures 19%Public cloud 33%Data centre for data. A third of respondents (33%) meanwhile, used a data Private cloud Inside the centre for this compared to 5% who stored this function 42.9% firm inside the firm. 4.8% Transferring company data across multiple devices ap- pears to be an issue where practices are sharply divided, with 57% of survey-takers prohibiting this practice among employees, compared to 43% of firms that allow it. ȰǍ০๧ਦǏ MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 23 COMMENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DILEMMAS

MARK RIDGWAY, PARTNER AT ALLEN & OVERY, SAYS THE FORTHCOMING Most notably for hedge funds, amendments were EU TRADE SECRETS DIRECTIVE SHOULD BE ON THE RADAR FOR proposed in relation to “employee mobility”, which some MEPs believed should be protected as a fundamental HEDGE FUNDS, PARTICULARLY IN REGARD TO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY freedom of greater importance than trade secret protection. Indeed, some of those amendments have now been agreed in what is likely to be the fi nal version of the directive. he dilemma of how best to protect intellectual Th e position is not however, as bad as once feared. Th e property within a hedge fund is not an easy fi nal version of the directive is fairly neutral for hedge funds one. Of all industries, the hedge fund sector interested in protecting trade secrets, as a result of sensible is the one where the most portable pieces compromises made at the last minute. Th e directive also of information can be worth the greatest does not interfere with existing national law relating amount of money. Protection of confi dential to contractual restrictions on employees, for example Tinformation has therefore always been essential. restrictive covenants and gardening leave provisions. Th is is particularly true for quantitative, algorithmic While the position currently varies between countries, and/or high frequency trading funds, where knowledge as from an English law perspective relevant to all hedge fund to which techniques or signals lead to profi table trading is operations in London, it should remain the case that funds developed through extensive research. Equally, the creation, MARK RIDGWAY, will be able to enforce their trade secrets against employees development and maintenance of these systems oft en requires ALLEN & OVERY who have illegitimately taken, or memorised, information. signifi cant investment in individuals who may then, as is their Funds will also be able to protect information that is right, decide to leave a fi rm to pursue another option. suffi ciently sensitive that, although known to the employee For funds trading in this way, issues can oft en arise from the course of their work, it cannot reasonably be around what these employees intend to take with them to said to be part of the employee’s skill and experience. new roles, or how long they need to be placed on gardening Th is includes trading algorithms developed in-house, and leave. Naturally, this gives rise to disputes between hedge intellectual property used by the employee but developed funds and their former employees, which have been a by the fi rm prior to their employment. frequent occurrence in recent years. Typically, these arise Th e directive does however make clear that trade secrets when one or more senior employees decide to break away under the directive should not interfere with mobility of from an existing fund. employees. Th e fact that this is now enshrined in European Because such employees are oft en party to valuable law will also give employees a further argument as to why information, the original fund will want to retain as much they should be allowed to make use of information that of that information as possible by preventing the employee they know from their previous employment. from using it, and may litigate to achieve this, although this In the longer term, the fact that these issues will be can be diffi cult, since the law generally gives employees a subject to the jurisdiction of the European courts also degree of latitude. means that the law could evolve – potentially unfavourably Against this already challenging background, news that – as the years pass, adding some uncertainty for employers. upcoming EU legislation in the form of the EU Trade Th e directive is likely to be passed by the European Secrets Directive had the potential to make things worse in Parliament in April, following which Member States will this area was unwelcome to hedge funds. have two years to bring national law into compliance. Th e Directive was intended to provide a minimum standard Many hedge funds keep their employment contracts of protection for trade secrets across the EU and hence would and their information security protocols under constant aff ect all funds operating in Europe, given the very limited review. However, even with the prospect of the UK – where protection that previously existed in some countries. many hedge funds are based – voting to leave the EU in In technology specifi cally, the directive set out to June, they should at this stage ensure that all contractual encourage innovation, research and collaboration between documentation and procedures are best in class and that industries and other stakeholders such as universities everything is being done to protect trade secrets. or other institutions. However, MEPs proposed many For funds that get it right, the directive should allow them to amendments to the draft ing of the directive, some of which protect their trade secrets across Europe. On the other hand, if risked undermining its original objectives. they get things wrong the consequences will be less good.

24 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 SERVICES DIRECTORY To promote your company, email: [email protected] or call UK +44 (0)20 7832 6615 // US +1 (212) 268 4919

Adam Phones Ltd 1-3 Dolphin Square, Edensor Road, London W4 2ST // Tel: +44 (0)20 8742 0101 // Lee Robertson (Sales Director) lee.robertson@ adamphones.com // Alex Phillips (Head of Mobile) [email protected] Adam Phones deliver award winning mobile and high-performance fixed line connectivity solutions to the alternative investment market. Established in 1987, we are trusted to deliver critical, failsafe communications to over 300 alternative investment firms globally. We leverage established relation- ships with Tier 1 fixed line and mobile carriers, application developers and equipment manufacturers, carefully integrating selected services to deliver powerful, resilient connectivity solutions. Consultancy, provisioning and management are key elements of the Adam Phones proposition: a proven single contact for design, delivery, contracting and billing, underpinned by 24/7 customer support. Adam Phones also partner with managed IT service providers, collectively delivering connectivity to the finance sector.

Capital Support Ltd, 3 Harbour Exchange Square, Docklands, London, E14 9GE // Nigel Brooks, Managing Partner // T:+44 (0)20 7458 1290// [email protected] // Carrie Saunderson, Head of Business Development // T:+44 (0)20 7458 1290 // [email protected] Capital Support is an award winning managed IT services and support provider. The Company specialises in implementing and supporting end-to-end solutions for a large portfolio of global finance sector customers. Based in London, Capital Support has grown steadily since forming in 2002. This successful growth has been fuelled by Capital Support’s commitment to innovation and exceptional customer service. The company ethos is to make IT simple for its customers, replac- ing the burden of high contact IT services with intelligently designed packaged solutions that span from consultancy, design and deployment all the way through to live support. Capital Support’s number one objective is to become the most trusted and respected managed IT services provider in the UK.

Charles Square Ltd, 16 Charles Street, Mayfair, London, W1J 5DS // Craig Harris, Director // Tel: +44 20 3823 4344 // [email protected] // Gareth Broekmann, Director // Tel: +44 20 3823 4343 // [email protected]

Charles Square is an independent IT management consultancy specialising in the financial sector. Covering all of your technology needs, from consultancy through to delivery and monitoring, working with you as your IT partner and not just an outsourced provider. We offer a range of services for you to choose from depending on your needs. This includes but is not limited to our core four offerings; virtual Chief Technology Officer / Virtual IT Manager / Virtual Chief Security Officer and Technology Support Partner. For more information regarding our services please feel free to visit our website www.charlessq.co.uk

Dell SecureWorks, Clayton Fields // cfi[email protected] // Tel: +1 404 961 5398 // web: www.secureworks.com // North America, One Concourse Parkway, Atlanta, Ga 30328 // UK , 1st Floor 1 Tanfield Edinburgh EH3 5DA Scotland, Tel: +44 (0) 131 260 3040

Recognized as an industry leader by top analysts, Dell SecureWorks provides world-class information security services to financial institutions of all sizes to protect their IT assets, comply with regulations and reduce security costs. We offer a diverse portfolio of information security services that empower you to focus resources where they make the most sense - your firms, clients, partners and funds. Our security experts serve as an extension of your team, filling in the gaps to strengthen your organization’s security and compliance postures, and reduce your risk.

eSentire, Mark Sangster, VP of Marketing // Tel: +1 519 651 2200 // 1 Penn Plaza, Suite 4501, New York, NY 10119 // www.esentire.com

eSentire® is the leader in Active Threat Protection solutions and services, the most comprehensive way to defend enterprises from advanced and never- before-seen cyber threats. eSentire’s flagship offering, Network Interceptor, challenges legacy security approaches, combining behaviour-based analytics, immediate mitigation and actionable intelligence on a 24x7x365 basis. The company’s dedicated team of security experts continuously monitors customer networks to detect and block cyber attacks in real-time. Protecting more than $2trn in combined assets, eSentire is the trusted choice for security decision- makers in financial services. In 2014 eSentire was named Best Security Service Winner at HFM's US Services Awards. For more information visit www.esentire. com and follow @esentire.

Eze Castle Integration, Dean Hill, Executive Director // +44 (0)207 071 6802 Simon Eyre, Director of Service // +44 (0)207 071 6835 Interpark House, 7 Down Street, London, W1J 7AJ, email: www.eci.com Eze Castle Integration is the leading provider of IT solutions and private cloud services to more than 650 alternative investment firms worldwide, including more than 100 firms with $1 billion or more in assets under management. Since 1995, Eze Castle Integration has developed financial vertical-specific IT solutions including infrastructure design and management (both in our Eze Private Cloud and on premise), telecommunications, business continuity planning and disas- ter recovery, archiving, storage, and internet services. These solutions are complemented by a broad service organisation that delivers outsourced IT support, including a 24x7x365 help desk, project and technology management services, consulting services and more. Eze Castle has presence in major financial centres including 8 US offices, a Singapore office, and a Hong Kong office in addition to its London office.

Gravitas, 475 Park Avenue South, 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10016 Jonathan Shapiro, Business Development // +1 212 400 2252 // email: [email protected]

Gravitas is a leading collaborative outsourcing platform for the alternative investment space. Founded in 1996, Gravitas helps hedge funds smartly scale their businesses through its people+process+technology offering. Gravitas experts provide front to middle office workflow support on a fully serviced and configurable investment platform that caters to your business controls. The company is based in New York with offices in Chicago, Greenwich, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, India.

Intralinks, Inc, T: 1-866-INTRALINKS or +44 (0) 20 7549 5200 // www.intralinks.com/hedgefund

Intralinks Fundspace™ for hedge fund managers provides best-in-class tools to distribute information to investors securely, efficiently and confidently. From cap- ital-raising to investor reporting, Fundspace provides a single, end-to-end solution to effectively engage with and meet the increasing demands of institutional investors. With over 25,000 endowments, foundations, pensions, consultants, and advisors accessing information from over 500 fund managers, Fundspace is the world’s leading communication platform for alternative investment. For more information, visit www.intralinks.com/hedgefund.

MARCH 2016 hfmtechnology.com 25 SERVICES DIRECTORY To promote your company, email: [email protected] or call UK +44 (0)20 7832 6615 // US +1 (212) 268 4919

Jim Serpi – London // T: +44 (0) 20 7821 4950 // [email protected], Annette Cantarella – New York // T: +1 212 634 6465 // [email protected] // Suite 26, 2 Station Court, Imperial Wharf, London SW6 2PY // www.matscosolutions.com Matsco Solutions Group, established in 2002, is the trusted IT support partner for hundreds of hedge funds and alternative investment firms across Europe, the United States and Asia. Specialising in hedge fund technology, Matsco Solutions provide best-of-breed industry solutions to its clients including private cloud services, business continuity planning, specialist start-up services, technology design, support and monitoring, virtual CTO services and a 24/7 engi- neer staffed helpdesk. The company was co-founded by Patrick Ferrall and Jim Serpi, who bring a wealth of industry experience, and has offices in London, New York, Stamford, San Francisco Bay, Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing.

Misys, James Pinnington, Head of Hedge Fund Sales // T: +44 (0)20 3320 5750 // [email protected] For more information about Misys products, please contact us via our website // www.misys.com

Misys has more than 25 years’ experience in providing innovative software solutions to the world's leading financial institutions. FusionInvest is Misys’ flag- ship solution for alternative investment that delivers flexibility, transparency and consistency throughout the investment process, enabling true collaboration across functional departments. FusionInvest’s unrivalled asset class coverage and powerful analytics are housed within a single, yet modular investment platform, which provides the solid foundation and scalability buy-side firms need to stay ahead of the competition in a fast moving world.

netConsult Ltd, Holden House, 57 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1JU, T. +44 (0)20 7100 3310, F. +44 (0)870 318 3126 // www.netconsult.co.uk // David Mansfield, COO // T:+44 (0)20 7100 3310 // dmansfi[email protected] // Laura Zverko, CMO // T:+44 (0)20 7100 3310 // [email protected] //

Established in 2002, netConsult is an award winning provider of managed IT Services to the global alternative investment industry. We aim to provide a high level of technical expertise to our clients combined with a dedication to customer service. Our ethos is based upon designing secure IT platforms which are manageable over the long term. We are a trusted technology provider to a large portfolio of clients ranging from small start ups to large global funds. net- Consult provides a bespoke service to its clients and provides a full suite of IT services including cloud services, outsourced IT, BCP, virtual CTO and IT security.

Nirvana Solutions, Mark Donovick, Vice President - Marketing // 80 Broad Street, Suite 1808, New York, NY 10004 // Tel: +1 212 768 3410 // email: [email protected] // London: Tony Premi // [email protected] // +44 (0) 203 174 2342

Nirvana Solutions is a cloud-based financial technology company that provides outsourced portfolio management solutions to hedge funds, prime brokers, and fund administrators. Nirvana is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Dehli. Investment managers need a reasonably priced, entry-level yet scalable system which enables them to minimize upfront capital outlay and concentrate on alpha generation instead of systems and data management. Nirvana consolidates and manages data across multiple asset classes, funds, accounts, traders, prime brokers and custodians in a single integrated platform to provide our clients with cloud-based OMS, PMS, risk management and reporting solutions.

RFA, US: Yohan Kim, COO, T: +1 212 867 4600, 330 Madison Avenue, 19th Floor, New York NY 10017 UK: George Ralph, Managing Director, Tel. + 44 207 093 5010, 52 Brook Street, London W1K 5DS

RFA has been the trusted technology partner to our clients for more than twenty five years. Offering a full range of technology solutions with global data center operations, RFA serves the IT needs of businesses including hedge funds, private equity funds, fund of funds, private wealth management and alternative asset management firms. Whether clients require on-site or cloud-based solutions, telephony or data systems, fully managed IT or project management, RFA has the expertise to meet the industry-specific needs of our clients. RFA is headquartered in New York City with operations in New York, Connecticut, Boston, MA, and London. Website: www.rfa.com

SmartStream, Nathan Gee, Marketing Manager, Tel: +44 (0) 20 7898 0630

SmartStream is a Global software and managed services provider that in challenging markets conditions has outpaced its rivals in the financial markets sector, creating an impressive base of more than 1,500 customers. At the heart of this success is the ability to react to client, market and regulatory changes through innovative solutions for the middle and back-office. That is why, even in challenging market conditions, the company continues to invest more than 20% of revenue back into research and development. The combination of SmartStream’s post-trade processing solutions, together with its unique Data Management Services, creates a real-time and pre-emptive approach to reducing trade failures while also accelerating and automating trade processes.

Tribeca Technology LTD, Simon Foster, Business Development Manager // T: +44 (0) 8000 122 225 // [email protected] // www.tribeca-it.com // 1 Berkeley street, London W1J 8DJ

Tribeca Technology, founded in 2006, is a provider of exceptionally high quality IT support services to the alternative investment industry. Our products are tailored to each individual client and include private cloud services, infrastructure management, IT security, telephony and BCP to name but a few. Critical system monitoring, rapid onsite response and helpdesk IT support is provided 24/7/364 via our offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. Tribeca’s products and services are constantly evolving to address changes in the financial services industry and to offer the very latest developments in technology, all to the advantage of our clients.

Punit Satsangi, EMEA Managing Director // [email protected] // T: +44 (0)20 3310 3304 1 St. Martins Le Grand, London, EC1A 4AS // www.sscglobeop.com SS&C GlobeOp is a leading fund administrator providing the world's most comprehensive array of financial technology products and services under a public, independent, single platform. Our expertise in business process outsourcing supports complete lifecycle capabilities, available on a stand-alone basis to hedge funds, fund of funds, private equity funds, family wealth offices, and managed accounts. Furthermore, our dedicated regulatory solutions group com- bines expertise and technology to provide our clients with the infrastructure and support they require to stay compliant. By outsourcing to SS&C GlobeOp, clients can reduce their technology investment and operational risks, leaving them more time to focus on asset generation and portfolio management. FUND FUND ADMINSITRATION TECHNOLOGY

26 hfmtechnology.com MARCH 2016 WINNER OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION 2016 HFM US TECHNOLOGY AWARDS Awarded: Most Innovative Technology Solution – Single Product

Since 1985, ALPS has been a leading provider of innovative investment products and customized solutions to the financial services industry. We are a leader in the industry by continually providing exceptional client service.

Michael Procter | 720.917.0591 | [email protected] DENVER | BOSTON | NEW YORK | SEATTLE | TORONTO www.alpsinc.com MIAMI | DALLAS | SAN FRANCISCO | GRAND CAYMAN Edge 5HGHÀQLQJLQYHVWPHQWUHVHDUFKE\FRQQHFWLQJIRUZDUGWKLQNLQJ UHVHDUFKZLWKGLJLWDOLQQRYDWLRQ

We’re proud to have won MOST INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION FOR SMALL AND START-UP FIRMS HFM US Technology Awards 2016

BCA Investment Research Solutions help the global investment community connect the dots between market activities and outcomes with a suite of products to make more informed investment decisions. Introduced in 2015, BCA Edge is a cloud-based platform that overlays customized information and data with a set of tools that reduce the time it takes to discover and integrate research into investment workfl ows. BCA Edge bridges the gap between BCA’s market-leading research and decision-making with this innovative platform designed directly with, and for investment professionals.

To learn more, visit bcaresearch.com/solutions.

BCA is the leading independent provider of global investment research. Since 1949, BCA’s mission has been to support its clients in making better investment decisions through the delivery of leading-edge analysis and forecasts of all the major asset classes and economies, as well as educating, informing and stimulating discussion through clear and thought-provoking research.

@bcaresearch BCA Research bcaresearch.com +1 514.499.9550