Once More Unto the Cloud, Dear Friends

At Monday's Waters USA conference I had an interesting conversation with DataArt's Alexei Miller. He says that for all the talk about cloud technology, most of it is spurious. I agree.
Everything gets called “cloud” these days, and as a result this homogenized definition has been bent to mean everything from virtualization to grid to platform-as-a-service. As State Street CIO Chris Perretta put it, "Every vendor that comes into our office just says, ‘Cloud!' If they sell you a flashlight, it's a cloud flashlight."
The danger in this is that by bastardizing the definition of cloud, it will take more time to fully tap into all of cloud's glorious potential. As JPMorgan Chase CTO Peter Ahrens put it, "Cloud is an over-hyped term—I know that it drives everybody in this room crazy to hear it—but it's a shame actually because the marketing always comes in advance of the capabilities."
What surprised me most at Monday's conference was how much talk of cloud there was. In addition to two panels solely devoted to cloud technologies, Perretta's keynote address was all about cloud, and cloud was continuously brought up during the CTO roundtable discussion.
So here's a news flash based off that information: Cloud is fully a reality on Wall Street. Shocking stuff, I know.
The years ahead will now be devoted not to whether cloud is appropriate for investment firms but rather what new areas cloud will seep into.
But one thing I would like to see is more clarity around what is and isn't cloud. It's far more difficult to advance something if you don't even have a proper definition.
Only users who have a paid subscription or are part of a corporate subscription are able to print or copy content.
To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact info@waterstechnology.com or view our subscription options here: https://subscriptions.waterstechnology.com/subscribe
You are currently unable to print this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
You are currently unable to copy this content. Please contact info@waterstechnology.com to find out more.
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (point 2.4), printing is limited to a single copy.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
Copyright Infopro Digital Limited. All rights reserved.
You may share this content using our article tools. As outlined in our terms and conditions, https://www.infopro-digital.com/terms-and-conditions/subscriptions/ (clause 2.4), an Authorised User may only make one copy of the materials for their own personal use. You must also comply with the restrictions in clause 2.5.
If you would like to purchase additional rights please email info@waterstechnology.com
More on Trading Tech
Academic warns of systemic risk from AI-powered trading
Strategies generated by LLMs exhibit “very strange, correlated trading behavior”, says Lopez Lira.
The Model Context Protocol brings agents to life—along with risk
Waters Wrap: From chat to infrastructure modernization, Anthropic’s MCP offers a ‘bridge’ to agentic AI, but its early days may prove disillusioning.
NZX outlines plans to bolster fast-growing dark pool
Since launching one year ago, NZX’s dark book has 5.5% of the exchange’s total turnover, and price improvement per trade on average is 11 basis points, but the exchange has more in store.
Agentic AI comes to Bloomberg Terminal via Anthropic protocol
The data giant’s ubiquitous terminal has been slowly opening up for years, but its latest enhancement represents a forward leap in what CTO Shawn Edwards calls, “the way we should talk to the world.”
M&G Investments braves cost headwinds in pursuit of AI
The UK asset manager’s AI ambitions started with the creation of a data lake to ensure high-quality data is being fed into models.
Asic probe piles pressure on ASX to deliver Chess replacement
But market insiders think late intervention by regulators could even slow down implementation.
Stakes raised for UK bond, EU derivatives tapes after Ediphy clinches win
The pressure is on for TransFICC, Etrading, Finbourne, and Propellant Digital, who are still vying to provide the UK’s fixed income consolidated tape after Esma awarded the EU’s tape to Ediphy and its partners.
Exchange M&A, US moratorium on AI regs dashed, Citi’s “fat-finger”-killer, and more
The Waters Cooler: Euronext-Athex, SIX-Aquis, Blue Ocean-Eventus, EDM Association, and more in this week’s news roundup.