Xenomorph has deployed its TimeScape analytics and data management solution in Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud, offering existing and potential users of the software an alternative to on-site installation. Some existing TimeScape users are expected to migrate to the cloud, while new customers can take immediate advantage of the short implementation time and reduced costs of the cloud option.
Xenomorph has been a Microsoft shop since it set up in 1995, making it relatively easy to make its first move into the cloud using Windows Azure. Naj Alavi, Xenomorph managing director, says the company was asked by clients to deploy TimeScape as a cloud solution some years ago, but decided the technology was not mature enough at that time. Now it has been proven in both financial services and other markets, Xenomorph has responded to customer interest in cloud technology. To date, it has one asset manager using the cloud solution in Asia and expects others to follow.
According to Brian Sentence, CEO of Xenomorph, “The availability of both on-premise and cloud-deployed versions of TimeScape offers more flexibility in system deployment, control of infrastructure costs and global availability of data and analytics. Some clients are following the pattern of on-premise deployment and, once the business logic is production proven, they then want to move it off site. Cloud capability for TimeScape is a response to that desire.”
Xenomorph reports that the configuration of TimeScape for the cloud and its implementation in Azure required only minor changes to the software’s technical stack, and that client migration from onsite to cloud should be equally smooth. The company does not offer a hosted version of TimeScape, making its move into the cloud an attractive proposition for firms that favour external system deployment. Global firms will also benefit by being able to use the cloud version of TimeScape as a central implementation that avoids the need to host the software in house and deploy thin clients for access, or the need deploy the software on all desktops.
Marking the trend towards cloud computing, David Aiken, Microsoft director of server and tools marketing, says: “While on-premise deployment remains essential for many institutions, cloud and hybrid-cloud architectures are the direction financial markets’ software solutions and services are taking. Windows Azure helps Xenomorph enable these architectures.”
