What key challenges do financial services clients face in managing their trading and data technology stacks today?

Technology is changing rapidly across financial services and components are going out of date sooner. To remain competitive, you need the right IT resources and technology or you’ll be left behind. Clients are also grappling with global supply chain issues, which can significantly delay the delivery of critical infrastructure, and dealing with higher market volatility. At the same time, they may be trialing new trading strategies. All of these factors can make it a challenge for them to stay up to date in managing their trading and data technology stacks.

The rate of technological advancement means clients also find it more challenging to have the right expertise to manage their trading stack. As hardware becomes more sophisticated, it becomes more difficult and costly to have the requisite expertise for each of the technology components. This is especially true for smaller organizations.

What trends has IGN observed globally in terms of firms optimizing their infrastructure?

We see a clear trend of companies moving toward a managed service model for their trading infrastructure. They don’t want to own and manage their own hardware given the rate of change and the investment needed. This means firms can drastically reduce their capital outlay and tap into the expertise of vendors and providers. It can make companies more nimble in volatile markets and allow them to try new markets without a huge upfront investment.

What do Techary’s capabilities bring to IGN customers?

For many companies, managing their trading infrastructure has become a secondary business, and by outsourcing it, they can focus more on their core business and strategic high-value activities. IGN are experts in connectivity, resiliency and latency - and now we are collaborating with Techary, an expert in managing and sourcing the right technology. This means our customers can work with a single vendor for all their infrastructure components.

For clients in our industry, the security component is also huge. Techary utilizes ICE Global Network - an ultra secure and highly resilient network - while many managed services firms use the internet, exposing their clients to its various security flaws. We can help clients reduce downtime, increase security, flexibility, and lower their capital outlay - in fact, savings are generally 70% of the cost of internal management.