Re: Banking on the Cloud

"Another interesting take away, the traditional enterprise sales model
is
dead."

Amen brother. Something many are still learning the hard way.

However, be forewarned that the only companies that Warberg Pincus
have in their portfolio that have multi-million dollar deals on the
table are companies with traditional enterprise sales models,
according to an insider I spoke with. Personally, I think that's
because WP has a bias for traditional model companies, but what do I
know.

James

On Jun 12, 8:05 pm, "Reuven Cohen" <r...@enomaly.com> wrote:
> I've spent the last few days hanging out with a bunch of bankers at the
> annual Morgan Stanley CTO Summit in San Francisco. The invite only event
> mixes the top Morgan Stanley technology personnel, emerging technology
> companies and key players in the venture capital world.
>
> Cloud Computing was a noticeably "hot topic" of conversation at this years
> summit. My invitation to this years event was a rare opportunity to pick the
> brains of the true enterprise decision makers on the challenges as well as
> the opportunities for cloud computing within an large financial environment.
> This year was particularly interesting because of the downturn in the
> finance market and challenges associated with it.
>
> I was surprised by just how informative this event actually was, I figured
> it would be just another "bankers" tech get together. I was wrong. Below are
> some of the key points I took away from the summit.
>
> Cloud Computing was front and center this year. One of the more interesting
> points that kept reoccurring was the need for better security. There seems
> to be a definite desire to use "Cloud Infrastructure" both internally within
> high performance computing, trading platforms and other various software
> platform services. There seems to a genuine desire to use external cloud
> resources such as Amazon. The need to secure data in the cloud was one of
> their single biggest concern. Those who offer this kind of "bridge to the
> cloud" will be the ones who will bring the most value to the banking
> industry. What is interesting, for the time being they seem more interested
> in keeping their "compute resources" safely tucked under the mattress then
> putting it to the hands of a "book store". (Personally I'd rather keep my
> money in the bank where it is safe and more easily managed in the same way
> I'd rather keep my computing infrastructure in a well managed cloud rather
> then in my office closet. Until the major banks realize this, I don't
> foresee a lot of movement toward the public cloud.)
>
> Another interesting take away, the traditional enterprise sales model is
> dead. Getting in through the back door is the way of the future. SaaS, Cloud
> and Open source are all viable options and in some ways preferred. They
> provide a frictionless way for IT works within Morgan Stanley a way to try
> new approaches, services and technologies. They were also quick to point out
> that whether or not the software was traditional or hosted was secondary to
> what "problem" it solved. The ability to solve a partcular problem was the
> most important aspect in getting your product or service in the door, this
> point is more important then any license applied to the technology. So don't
> focus on the "it's SaaS", focus on the problem.
>
> Also interesting was the declaration that cost is not always a major part of
> the decision process when looking at software and related services. One
> example was provided by a top level VP, his story involed a 2,000 server
> deployment used for some sort of risk analysis (he was vague). This
> deployment of 2,000 servers easily costs them several million dollars,
> moreover they only use these servers for about 1 hour per month (if at all).
> But when they do use these servers, on that one day when the "market goes
> crazy" it could mean the difference between a 2 billion dollar loss or a 1
> billion dollar profit. His numbers may have been an exaggerated a bit, but
> the point hit home. (It's all about making money)
>
> Another area that kept being mentioned was virtual desktop deployments are
> big business for the bank. VDI users now have the ability to work within
> their own "context" and have their personal desktop environment move with
> them. No longer do IT staff need to continuely maintain desktops onsite thus
> saving the bank a lot of time and resources. They also made mention that
> "human resources" is their biggest technology cost. If a employee changes
> position, moves to a new office and leaves all together, it's now just a
> couple clicks saving the bank a lot of money.
>
> Interesting was the amount of data integration companies at the event. Based
> on the sheer volume of data integration companies at the event, I would say
> they are looking seriously at this area, although my conversations didn't
> touch upon this topic. (I was way to busy pushing my cloud agenda.)
>
> One of the biggest surprises was regardless of the downturn in the markets,
> Morgan Stanley is on track to spend more then ever on their IT budget. They
> seem to think that during periods of lower economic activity it gives them a
> rare opportunity to establish themselves in new areas of emerging technology
> that my give them a competitive advantage down the road. They also seem to
> think that their use of technology will directly influence their ability to
> maintain their lead in the lucrative tech IPO market (which appears to be
> none existent this year). They went on to say that the companies that emerge
> during the hardtimes tend to do better in the long term (Think Google).
> Morgan Stanley is ready to apply this to their own business and I applaud
> them for it. If I ever go IPO, I know who will represent me!
>
> (Original Post:http://elasticvapor.com/2008/06/banking-on-cloud.html)
> --
> --
>
> Reuven Cohen
> Founder & Chief Technologist, Enomaly Inc.
>
> blog >www.elasticvapor.com
> -
> Get Linked in>http://linkedin.com/pub/0/b72/7b4

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