Investment management solutions specialist SimCorp took the next step in its cloud migration this week, with the integration of its investment management platform with Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing platform with which Microsoft is hoping to win its ongoing Infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas) battle against Amazon AWS and Google Cloud.
The rapidly growing Iaas market, estimated by Gartner to be worth up $64.3 billion by 2021 (from $50.4 billion this year), has so far been dominated by AWS, which as of Q3 2019 held around 33% of the public cloud market (according to data from Synergy Research Group), compared to 16% for Microsoft Azure, 8% for Google Cloud and 5% for China’s Alibaba.
However, Microsoft has put its best foot forward with a ‘cloud first’ strategy heavily promoted by CEO Satya Nadella, building a vast cloud network designed to connect with and build on its widely used Office 365 and Teams functionality. It’s come on in leaps and bounds over the last year, particularly through its Functions capability (targeted at capturing cutting edge tech) and the Azure Machine Learning element, which allows developers to write, test and deploy algorithms, as well as access a marketplace for off-the-shelf APIs.
SimCorp, its latest customer, is obviously sold. Heightened global market conditions, increased competition and regulation are placing high demands especially on buy-side operations, calling for more flexible consumption of solutions and services and stronger support of investment operations. In response many firms, SimCorp included, are moving towards a more flexible, service-based offering – and cloud computing is a vital part of that transformation.
“The cost savings, significantly decreased CO2 footprint and increased flexibility we have witnessed from our internal migration as an organization, were key in the decision to select Microsoft Azure, as the backbone for our external solutions and services,” explains Chief Product Officer Georg Hetrodt. “We have seen what the cloud can do for our own business growth, and we want to offer the same benefits to our clients. This includes easier to consume solutions and services, via a robust cloud offering, and open access to innovation, that truly supports their success. In doing so, we take on increased accountability for solving our clients’ core business challenges.”
The adoption of Azure across SimCorp’s external solutions and service follows the company’s internal migration of IT operations and services to Azure, which first began in 2019. The latest move expands the vendor’s cloud offering, ‘SimCorp Dimension as a Service’, which will now be offered to new and existing clients with the optionality of both private cloud with current hosting partners, and public cloud with Azure.
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