Eze Castle Integration Survey Finds Private Cloud Adoption Rising and High Cloud-User Satisfaction Levels Among Financial Services Institutions
Boston, MA (PRWEB) September 25, 2013 -- Eze Castle Integration, Inc., a leading provider of strategic IT solutions and private cloud services to hedge funds and alternative investment firms, today announced the results of its independent “Examining Cloud Usage in the Investment Management Industry” survey, which was conducted in partnership with IDG Research. Of the 101 senior-level executives who participated in the survey, 87 percent said they are using cloud services. The drive to the cloud, according to participants, stems from a need for easier application access, greater control over IT budgets, reduced IT complexity and better disaster recovery capabilities.
The 2013 survey found that the private cloud deployment model continues to be the top choice for investment firms, with 74 percent of respondents using a private cloud to meet all or part of their IT and application needs. While cloud security is often cited as a concern, an overwhelming number of respondents (93 percent) said that the private cloud is more secure than or just as secure as on-premise infrastructure.
Survey results showed satisfaction levels are high among cloud users with 90 percent of respondents saying their chosen cloud model meets or exceeds expectations in key areas. Top areas the cloud is meeting or exceeding expectations include reducing IT costs (93 percent), improving end-user IT experience (92 percent), simplifying IT management (91 percent) and allowing reallocation of resources to more valuable activities (89 percent).
Additional findings include:
• Forty percent of firms expect their use of private and hybrid clouds to increase in the next 12 months, while 28 percent of firms expect to increase public cloud usage.
• Among the reasons participants gave for adopting private cloud services were greater control over accessibility and stronger security.
• Three out of four of hybrid cloud respondents were at least somewhat concerned with interoperability of systems and applications across multiple clouds.
• More than one-third of respondents said their organizations are spending more on cloud this year than they did last year, while only five percent said their budgets have decreased.
“Adoption of cloud services are at an all-time high as alternative investment firms embrace the significant benefits delivered by this technology delivery model. The results from our 2013 survey further expand on why and how financial services firms are implementing cloud services, building upon the 2012 survey results which showed that eight out of 10 investment management firms were using or planning to use cloud services,” said Bob Guilbert, managing director of Eze Castle Integration. “We expect private cloud services to remain the top choice of investment firms for years to come.”
Study demographics:
The online survey conducted by IDG Research collected information from 101 senior-level executives at hedge funds, investment management firms, private equity firms, and fund-of-fund firms that were using or planning to use the cloud for infrastructure or application services. Twenty percent of these individuals worked at firms with more than $1 billion in assets under management (AUM); 19 percent had an AUM between $500 million and $999 million; 20 percent had between $100 million and $499 million in AUM; and 38 percent had less than $100 million in AUM at the time of the survey.
Additional resources:
• Cloud Survey Research and Report: http://www.eci.com/knowledge-center/2013-cloud-usage-survey-results.html
• Eze Cloud Forum: http://www.eci.com/cloudforum/
• Hedge Fund IT Blog: http://www.eci.com/blog/
About Eze Castle Integration
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 80 firms with $1 billion or more in assets under management. The company’s products and services include Private Cloud Services, Technology Consulting, Outsourced IT Support, Project & Technology Management, Professional Services, Telecommunications, Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery, Archiving, Storage, Colocation and Internet Service. Eze Castle Integration is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Stamford.
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Kaleigh Alessandro, Eze Castle Integration, http://www.eci.com, +1 (617) 217-3029, [email protected]
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