Avox Data Services has migrated its data servers to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud as part of a strategic move by parent DTCC to adopt technologies with the largest potential to improve applications. Avox is an early adopter of cloud in the DTCC group and says its move to AWS could reduce the cost of Avox entity data, although its focus is more on the ability to scale, develop better data services and add capabilities requested by clients.
The company migrated its core apps, servers, data feeds and clients to AWS at the turn of this month and says that while data will take a different route to clients, there will be no immediate differences that clients will see.
Mark Davies, managing director at DTCC Europe and general manager of Avox Data Services, says that despite previous concerns about the security and privacy of data in the cloud, many of the company’s clients are themselves using or considering cloud solutions that can deliver scale, perhaps for storage, and opportunity, perhaps to test new projects, and acknowledge that cloud is the way the industry is going.
Talking about Avox’s use of AWS, he says: “We should be able to scale faster and at lower cost, develop new data services and make light touch changes. Over time, this could reduce client costs, but the focus is on adding services that clients want, expanding our data population to more than the two million entities we already manage and making more data updates using different public sources.”
With entity hierarchy data already in place, the company is working with structured data to make and map links between companies such as umbrella funds and subfunds, and legal entities and their branches. While Avox is an early adopter of cloud technology within DTCC, other businesses in the group with which it integrates, particularly Clarient Entity Hub, the GMEI utility and Omgeo ALERT, are expected to step up to the cloud soon.
