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Finance in the Cloud

Entrepreneurs Edition v1.0

FREE 15th July 2013

About this Report

This report considers the innovative ways in which financial services are being created in the Cloud.

What is cloud computing and how is it being used by organisations and entrepreneurs to innovate

and offer new services? What are the economics of cloud computing, and can the security, privacy

and back up problems be resolved? Will businesses and consumers feel safe with a cloud based

computing environment? Is a cloud based computing strategy the only solution to device

proliferation and the scaling challenges of the rapidly growing company? How do BYOD (bring your

own device), BYOS (bring your own software) affect cloud computing paradigms?

The objective of the Guide is to provide insight to entrepreneurs and other interested parties about

cloud and to identify the areas in which entrepreneurial opportunities reside. Please note that the

guide does not cover every company involved in cloud computing and SaaS but focuses on

innovative companies or companies representative of a particular genre.

©IC Dowson and William Garrity Associates Ltd, Eddie George and London New Finance a trade name of Eddie George Ltd 2 | P a g e

Table of Contents Legal Disclaimer ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Notice to all users ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.0 Preface and Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 5 2.0 The emerging cloud computing Eco structure ............................................................................................................ 5

2.0.1 Technical ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.0.3 Processes ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.0.4 Devices ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.0.5 Security, Backup, Information protection .................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Technical ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Processes – SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. .......................................................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Devices – Impact ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.4 Bring your Own (BYO) ..................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.5 Government in the Cloud ................................................................................................................................................ 7 2.6 Assessment of Driving Forces .......................................................................................................................................... 8 2.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8

3.Cloud Computing Resources ‐ Examples ................................................................................................................................. 8 3.1 IaaS – Options Private Financial Cloud ‐ Options‐it.com ................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Cloud computing resources – Luna Cloud ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.3 BYOD – Security ‐ Mobile Iron ......................................................................................................................................... 9 3.4 Closed/neutral Hosting – Interxion ................................................................................................................................. 9

3.5 Cloud Price discovery – Cloudorado – Appendix 2 ............................................................................................................... 9 3.6 Cloud resources as a commodity services Strategic Blue ‐ Cloud Options ........................................................................... 9 3.7 Other Cloud computing providers ....................................................................................................................................... 9 3.8 UK Could Computing Association ......................................................................................................................................... 9 4. Processes in the Cloud ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 4.1 Accounting Xero ................................................................................................................................................................. 10

4.2 E‐Invoicing Tradeshift .................................................................................................................................................... 10 4.3 Expense management Concur ...................................................................................................................................... 10 4.4 Capital Markets Trading ‐ Quant Connect .................................................................................................................... 11

4.5 Capital Markets Derivitec 6 ........................................................................................................................................... 11 4.6 Compliance – Fund Apps ............................................................................................................................................... 11 4.7 Collaboration ‐Huddle ................................................................................................................................................... 11

5. Future .................................................................................................................................................................................. 11 7. Entrepreneurial Opportunities* ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Appendix 1 ‐ Cloud Industry Forum Members ......................................................................................................................... 13 Appendix 2 Clouderado.com – Cloud Comparison Site sample page ...................................................................................... 18


Legal Disclaimer IC Dowson and William Garrity Associates Ltd, Eddie George and London New Finance a trade name of Eddie George Ltd

(the Authors) make no assertion to the correctness, validity or usability of any of the information or comments in this

document. The “Authors” responsibility for any third party references made from this document; any third party source

should be checked by and validated by any user of this document who should make their own considered assessment. Any

user of this document does so at his or her own risk and assumes full liability thereof for any decisions made upon the basis

of any information included in this document in whatever legal jurisdictions. In any event “the authors” accept no legal

liability to any third party, or duty or implied duty of care in any manner whatsoever unless a specific signed contract

exists. By using this document any third party agrees to these conditions. This document has been written for academic

and theoretical debate purposes only. Any third party using this document agrees to these conditions and will not use any

information extracted from this document which numbers pages 1 to 18 without expressly communicating these

conditions to any other person. Under no circumstances will the user of this report use any the information contained

within to specifically identify any specific individual and will not use any of the information contained within this report to

generate email lists “Spam” or any other automatic mail email generating system. All users of this confirm that information

contained within this report shall be stored and used in accordance with the data protection act 1998 or use any

information contained in the document as the basis of any investment decision.

If any reader of this report is considering any form of investment he or she should not rely on any of the information

contained in this report, it has been written for academic and theoretical purposes only. Any person or organisation

considering investment should seek advice from a FCA* (Financial Conduct Authority) approved professional financial

investment adviser and conduct in depth independent diligence. Nothing contained in this report, or third party references

constitutes investment advice or any incentive or inducement to invest in the FinTech asset class. Investment in this asset

class is only suitable for professional or high net worth investors as determined by the FCA. Investment in FinTech

companies is very high risk and in the majority of cases results in complete loss of capital and should only be undertaken by

Professional investors as defined by the FCA who take extreme care in diligence and have made the appropriate risk

assessments required by the FCA and have had received independent advice from a professional FCA qualified investment

adviser. For the vast majority of investors this asset class contains too much risk, you will lose all of your capital invested,

do not invest in this asset class. Please speak to your Accountant, Lawyer, Stockbroker or other FCA qualified adviser. “The

authors” are not FSA registered financial advisers and do not hold themselves to be so. For any forward‐looking statements

contained in this document, “The Authors” claim the protection of the safe harbour for forward‐looking statements

contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. * Financial Conduct Authority, FPA (Financial Policy

Committee) and PRA (Prudential Regulation Authority) regulations.

No endorsement or recommendation is made of any of the companies, systems or procedures mentioned in the report,

any reader must make their own appropriate due diligence before considering any form of business arrangement. Under

no circumstances can the authors have any liability for any actions that result in loss to any third party. The entrepreneurial

opportunities are theoretical academic evaluations and are not any form of investment advice.

Copyright

Copyright is claimed under UK and international copyright law by IC Dowson and William Garrity Associates Ltd, Eddie

George and London New Finance a trade name of Eddie George Ltd (the Authors) all rights are reserved.

Rights Holders ‐ the copyright of any material used from public domain sources is acknowledged and remains the property

of the copyright holder; all trademarks are the property of the trade mark owner and are acknowledged.

By using this document numbered pages 1‐18 any third party automatically agrees to these conditions.

© sign indicates copyright claimed by IC Dowson William Garrity Associates Ltd and Eddie George and London New

Finance a trade name of Eddie George Ltd (“the Authors”) 15 July 2013 all rights are reserved.


Notice to all users

This report is exclusive to Members of the NewFinance Meetup Group and should only be used for educational

and academic purposes. Under no circumstances should it be used as the basis for investment purposes. If

investment is contemplated advice should be sourced from an IFA (Independent Financial Adviser) approved

by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and accordance with FPC (Financial Policy Committee) and PRA

(Prudential Regulation Authority) regulations. There is no endorsement of the correctness, financial standing

or capacity of any of the organisations or technologies mentioned by the authors.

Financial Values Stated in the report

All financial values stated in the report are illustrative only and at best guidelines as they have been sourced

from public domain datasets. Financial reporting of investment and acquisition values can be seriously

inaccurate; any financial values contained in this report are illustrative. When a value has been required to

complete a dataset and there has been no reporting of that value an estimate has been made, this estimate

could be highly inaccurate. Examples are that net transaction values may be reported that eliminate liabilities,

losses, debt, bank loans, earn outs, clawbacks, share options, ratchet payments and earn outs. This is not an

exclusive list; this could result in material over or under reporting of real transaction value. Litigation and

escrow resolution and taxation can affect transaction values as well as IP and ownership disputes.

This report will always be in Beta

This report is a work in progress. If you know additional sources of data please inform us and they will be

incorporated into the next edition.

An Apology in advance

As many attendees at the Meetup are involved intimately in FinTech transactions you may have much more

additional information on the detail of specific transactions. A full and complete and unreserved apology is

offered in advance for any misreporting, please contact the author(s) to report any inaccuracies.

Collaboration

An open call is made for Collaboration on data sources and ways to enhance the value of this report to

members.

Finally

Do not use the information contained in this document for professional, commercial and investment purposes.

Investments, none of the information contained in this report is a solicitation, encouragement or guide to

make investments in Cloud computing technology or to use any of the technologies illustrated. Investment in

start‐ups is extremely high risk and should only be undertaken by qualified professional investors advised by a

FCA qualified independent Financial Advisor. Investment in cloud finance technologies should not be

undertaken by readers of this report.

Contact

Please contact the authors:‐

Eddie George

NewFinance

Email [email protected]

Twitter @eddiegeorge

+44 7951 613011

Ian Dowson

William Garrity Associates Ltd

Email ‐ [email protected]

Twitter ‐ @iand47

+44 7815 732637


1.0 Preface and Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Cloud computing is changing the way the world organises its computing facilities. One of the primary

driving factors has been the falling cost of computer storage. The cost of 1GB of disk storage was

$193,0001 in 1980 and has fallen to $0.0312 in 2013.

Other driving forces are:

Lower cost of file storage and improved hardware performance

Advances in virtual machine software and techniques for managing computer facilities

Enterprise standard security and backup regimes able to be provided by a third party

End user device and network proliferation

Startup’s use the cloud extensively to test products and scale

The emergence of large scale cloud computing firms e.g. Amazon

Merging of business process with computing

The complexity and costs of managing a private computer centre are high

Human capital constraints – training and hiring ICT staff is expensive

Scalability and flexibility

The App driven economy

To summarise, the cost, capability, security, network capacities, connective device complexities and

process efficiencies available from cloud computing facilities have lowered barriers to entry for start‐

ups and offer more flexible and technically advanced computer capabilities and efficiencies for

Corporates, Governments and other users.

2.0 The emerging cloud computing Eco structure

2.0.1 Technical

Highly sophisticated, large volume processing cloud datacentres are available at low cost to anyone.

Establishment of these services is frictionless, and backup, security, and service availability improves

with every new product iteration. These services are available from well know trusted brands such

as IBM, Microsoft and Amazon Web services. For the corporate user there are a number of specialist

cloud and hosted datacentre operators that offer additional enterprise level performance, enhanced

security, and data management.

2.0.3 Processes

With the cost of storage and processing falling the market for SaaS (Software as services) and BpaS

(Business Process as a service) has grown. Gartner sized the market for the total public cloud at

$131billion worldwide in 2013 with an 18.5% growth rate over 2012. The (BpaS) segment being

worth $9bn in 2013 a growth rate of 47.3%3. FinTech innovators have grasped this trend providing

SaaS/BpaS cloud services around collaboration, electronic invoicing, expense management, and

ecommerce; new services are appearing around capital markets and trading.

1 http://www.mkomo.com/coshe market for SaaSt‐per‐gigabyte 2 PC World – retail ‐ http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/components‐upgrades/internal‐hard‐drives/3‐5‐inch‐hard‐drives/wd‐internal‐3‐ sata‐hard‐drive‐3tb‐11358358‐pdt.html 3 http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2352816


2.0.4 Devices

The proliferation of devices such as mobile phones, iPads, personal computers, terminals and the

trend by users to want to use their own device creates complexities for corporate data centres with

legacy systems; a solution is the adoption of specialist cloud based computing services. This trend is

called BYOD (Bring your own device); it is soon to be followed by BYOS (Bring your own Software)

and in the future BYOC (Bring your own cloud). These trends are driven by users wishing to only have

one device/system/cloud for both personal and business use and to be able to combine the use of

systems e.g. Google spreadsheets at home and excel at work, but with access to both being via a

single device. The iPhone has been the change agent; the previous solution was to buy a Blackberry

for Corporate use resulting in the employee having two phones. Users resist this complication and

want a single system, RIM’s financial results are an indicator of this desire.

2.0.5 Security, Backup, Information protection

These issues have been a break on the adoption of Cloud (Shared) computing facilities for many

financial services corporates. This issue is more complex than simply having the latest version of a

firewall / virus scanner on a host server as the diagram below illustrates.

These complexities are examples of a subset of cloud computing and illustrate commercial

opportunities for the FinTech entrepreneur.

2.1 Technical

Cloud computing does not come in one shape or size, there are a number of market segments.

Private ‐ companywide only available to employees, suppliers and customers

Public Cloud – generic computer facilities available to anyone, the largest example is AWS

(Amazon Web Services)


Hosted – Closed group – Interxion is an illustration of closed loop financial services group

hosting.

Cloud as back up – the Cloud can be used as a generic back resource

Cloud as storage‐ the cloud acts as storage for data that does not require immediate

processing and can be retrieved by legacy systems.

Hybrid Cloud – any combination of the above

2.2 Processes – SaaS, PaaS, IaaS.

SaaS/BpaS – Software as a service, Business process as a service. SaaS is effectively a place

to rent a cloud based computer system to do a service that is hosted at a third party, the

prime example of this would be payroll processing. BpaS is where the whole process is cloud

based an example is the corporate travel booking and travel expense accounting and

reimbursement systems

PaaS – Platform as a service, rental of a complete series of cloud based software suites for a

particular business function; an example is a full suite accounting software.

IaaS – Infrastructure as a service – where you rent space and storage on a cloud computing

facility and install all the computing services of an organisation, you are the manager of

facilities and applications using the cloud centres tools.

Combinations, these resources can be internal to a company, an external cloud, user or host

managed or a combination of both. A trend is to put generic software resources into a cloud

and keep vital commercially sensitive services in hosted closed loop clouds or internally.

2.3 Devices – Impact

Device proliferation has had an impact on cloud computing use. Users want to be able to access data

from centralised systems from systems of their choice. In the era of the centralised computing

department this was unacceptable, but now has changed. Fast broadband, 3G/4G telephone

connection, ubiquitous Wi‐Fi are the drivers. Highly structured legacy data centres find this difficult

to manage, cloud computing facilities are designed to do this.

2.4 Bring your Own (BYO)

The bring your own device software cloud trend is only beginning, the barrier has been broken with

Corporate’s, they have had to find a way to make iPhones and Android work on corporate systems

securely. Finance Directors can see the benefits of employees using their own equipment for work.

This drives cloud based solutions as this problem has to be solved quickly. BYOS software is only

starting to impact corporate software use; users are driven by UI and UX experiences and choose the

best interface and best performing software, many corporate environments mandate corporate

legacy solutions. A solution is to have a number of systems in a cloud, creating linked systems.

2.5 Government in the Cloud – G Cloud ‐ Government Digital Services

The UK government has adopted a policy of mandating that any new computer system proposal

should by default be cloud. The report Government Cloud Strategy4 is a case study in how to

transform an organisation by application of cloud technology. This policy is being implemented now

through the UK Governments Digital Strategy and Digital by Default Service Standard. This is a

4 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85982/government‐cloud‐strategy_0.pdf


fundamental change in how UK Government is delivered; it offers many opportunities for the

FinTech entrepreneur.

2.6 Assessment of Driving Forces

The driving forces for the adoption of Cloud computing solutions are embedded. The UK

Governments wholesale adoption of a cloud based computing approach is groundbreaking and

illustrative of how a transition can be made from a silo centralised computing resource by the

biggest organisation in the UK. In the Corporate world cloud computing offers high performance

computing services at low cost to anyone. Startups put cloud facilities at the heart of their business

model, these forces are embedded.

2.7 Conclusion

Cloud offers a step change in performance, cost and systems availability, no longer is your bespoke

CRM (Customer relationship management) system a killer competitive advantage. Your competitors

large and small can access systems such as Salesforce and immediately have the same tools as the

largest corporation. In FinTech an example is Fund Apps offering compliance and risk monitoring to

the fund industry, any new entrant to this industry has at least one barrier to entry already removed.

A view of the future is that companies will move generic processes to the cloud keeping specific

“competitive advantage” services in house. Real competitive advantage will come from how

organisations manage the combination of inside and outside services. Startups by their definition

come at this problem with no legacy; they have an inbuilt advantage as by using the cloud is one of

the main ways they achieve cost and system advantages.

3.Cloud Computing Resources ‐ Examples

3.1 IaaS – Options Private Financial Cloud ‐ Options‐it.com

Options has developed a private cloud specifically designed to meet the needs of capital markets it

has an impressive standards certifications for its own operations and for that of its software vendors,

SSAE 16, SOC 1/2/3, ISAE 3402 and ISO 27001. It also has support specifically designed for capital

markets. Its product offering is much more sophisticated than from a generic cloud provider. This

strategy illustrates to the FinTech entrepreneur that there are many market segments of standards

and service packages in the FinTech cloud market; price is not the only differentiator.

3.2 Cloud computing resources – Luna Cloud

Luna Cloud is an example of the latest iteration of a cloud computing provider. It provides cloud

server, storage, appliances and databases, with a frictionless sign on and onboarding process. Luna

Cloud uses 10Gens No SQL “Mongo” Database that offers performance improvements over earlier

cloud computing configurations. Incidentally, Mongo DB has just been applied to a very large

customer service big data application at Met Life (this is not on Luna Cloud). Luna cloud illustrates

how cloud services are evolving and enables the FinTech entrepreneur to offer enhanced

performance and service levels when they design their SaaS/BpaS applications for the Financial

Services markets.


3.3 BYOD – Security ‐ Mobile Iron

Security is vital to any cloud based application, even more so for mobile devices connected to a

cloud, they will get stolen, hacked and be used to compromise enterprise systems. Mobile Iron is an

example of an enterprise/web security solution; they have Barclays, Blackstone, Fidelity, Liberty

amongst their financial services customers. For the FinTech entrepreneur, Mobile Iron’s application

illustrates that cloud, mobile and enterprise can work together and that there are effective security

solutions available. Mobile Iron’s ecosystem and continuous updating of security management and

the development of secure computing environments illustrate how cloud computing environments

create new value chains.

3.4 Closed/neutral Hosting – Interxion

Interxion provides data centre co‐location services and cloud computing resources. It’s specialism in

financial markets is proximity hosting. It undertakes this task for Burgundy, Equiduct, NGX, Plus

Markets, Quote MTF and multiple dark pools, as well as BATS Chi‐X Europe, Bolsa de Madrid, Liffe,

London Metal Exchange, Nasdaq OMX, NYSE Euronext and SIX Swiss Exchange. This allows latency

reductions and facilitates easy and cost‐effective sourcing of the bandwidth, market data services,

technology solutions and managed services. Similar facilities are offered for liquidity venues to host

matching services with over 200+ participants. Interxion has focused on offering secure, hosted

specialist services for capital markets, for FinTech Entrepreneurs it is an example of specialisation.

3.5 Cloud Price discovery – Cloudorado – Appendix 2

Is a price discovery engine for IaaS. The FinTech entrepreneur can find the lowest cost and identify

opportunities for arbitrage.

3.6 Cloud resources as a commodity services Strategic Blue ‐ Cloud Options

Cloud broker dealers, cloud pricing is not transparent – cloud options offer a purchasing service that

cuts through the complexities and allows the user to get the lowest price for cloud resources. For the

FinTech Entrepreneur this is an indication that a tradable market in cloud based computing

resources may be emerging, other opportunities are arbitrage. Cloud options have an advisory Cloud

market forum that includes many industry recognisable professionals.

3.7 Other Cloud computing providers

The industry is large and worldwide, other examples of cloud serving companies are Amazon Web

Services, Rackspace, Microsoft Azure, and Heroku.

3.8 UK Could Computing Association

This is an industry association, the membership is listed in appendix 1. In the main these companies

are enterprise hosting companies that have migrated into offering cloud managed services.

4. Processes in the Cloud

Financial services processes placed in the cloud, then delivered to consumers or business via a cloud

have a compelling logic, that of cost reduction and organisational simplification. Companies can then

focus on their real competitive advantages. Corporate strategies from the 1980’s have tried to

outsource back offices to the lowest cost areas, this has had a mixed success rate particularly when


consumer service facing functions are located offshore. A new breed of cloud based services have

emerged allowing financial services to reduce cost but also have a different kind of relationship with

service providers and consumers. Below are a number of examples.

4.1 Accounting Xero

Xero is an online accounting system used by 200,000 persons, started in New Zealand and now

global. It has worked very hard on its interfaces and customer experience to deliver ease of use and

frictionless transaction processing. By understanding its market, Xero segments its sales channels

exceptionally well. Corporates, SME’s, Accountants and Bookkeepers, and personal are segmented. It

has c200 add on’s in 11 subgroups and markets specifically to developers to create more add on’s.

Xero’s 2012‐2013 revenue was NZ $39m5 (US $30m), with a market capitalisation of $1,500mNZ, (US

$1,167m) 28 May 2013. For the FinTech Entrepreneur Xero is a case study in UI and UX design and

SaaS software channel segmentation. Look at Xero’s understanding of the bookkeeper and

accountant segment and the professionals in its value chain. Examine how they have developed an

App (add‐ons) based eco system developed around its core business process offering.

4.2 E‐Invoicing Tradeshift

Tradeshift is an E Invoicing system for companies that integrates directly into their accounting and

payment systems. Its business model is formulated on the premise that large companies have an

almost impossible administrative burden placed on them by having to process 100’s of thousands of

invoices. Tradeshift provides the bridge for all invoices to become electronic. Similar networks have

been developed for EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) but they have been aimed at larger

corporations and every participant has to pay. Tradeshift is free for onbording participants enabling

the goal of 100% participation to be achieved. For the FinTech Entrepreneur Tradeshift reworks an

existing process model from a 100% subscription model to a model where the beneficiary pays over

a small part of their savings so the Tradeshift solution becomes ubiquitous.

4.3 Expense management Concur

Concur is an expenses and travel booking SaaS solution to process company expenses and manage

travel arrangements, producing all of the VAT and compliance documentations and expense

management analysis tools. Their pricing section has some very clear process maps that illustrate an

effective cloud based system. For FinTech Entrepreneurs Concur illustrates a neat mix of travel

booking financial management and personal expense claims, these processes can be an

administrative nightmare for many companies. The interesting point about Concur is the solution of

two, not one, customer business problems with one system. Maybe looking for a customer’s

complementary problem that can be integrated into to your SaaS solution can differentiate your

product.

5 Xero Investor presentation http://www.xero.com/media/379292/investor_presentation_May_2013_‐_external_v2.pdf


4.4 Capital Markets Trading ‐ Quant Connect 6

Cloud based algorithm development and back testing platform for Quant Scientists with access to

capital back trading strategies. One could describe this as a system to enable an individual to build

and fund a proprietary trading desk in the cloud. For the FinTech entrepreneur it is an example of a

cloud based service aimed at capital markets professionals with a route to capital to implement

trading strategies, complex capital market process can be put into a cloud based mode. There must

be many more elements of the capital markets value chain that could benefit from similar SaaS type

models.

4.5 Capital Markets Derivitec 6

Derivitec is a cloud based capital markets analytics and trading tool, trade blotter and data browser,

offering high performance, cost effective analytics and testing for the derivatives industry based on

windows Azure. Another example of specialised capital market segment opportunities available for

FinTech entrepreneurs using high performance cloud computing resources.

4.6 Compliance – Fund Apps

Cloud based compliance & risk monitoring for the fund management industry in the cloud. Fund

Apps are an example of how very dense regulatory procedures can be placed into a cloud

environment, solving a real problem for many fund managers. For the FinTech entrepreneurs

consider how Fund Apps emphasise simple integration, automatic rule change updates, workflow

design, management and security. This business model has an added advantage of being knowledge

based, as regulations change monitoring requirements and reporting needs are modified, these

expert skills remain within Fund Apps increasing their expert skill base.

4.7 Collaboration ‐Huddle

Very extensive enterprise collaboration and content sharing suite and alternative to SharePoint,

used by large Corporations and professional services firms such as PWC. FinTech entrepreneurs

should examine how Huddle developed from a small collaboration tool into a major competitor to

Microsoft SharePoint. See how fast growth was achieved against a massively entrenched supplier.

The competitive response from Microsoft was to buy Yammer for $1.2bn.

5. Future

Cloud services are continuing to grow, they are still at their emergent phase in the financial services

industry. Companies will no longer be able to hide behind the security argument for not migrating to

lower cost and more productive cloud type services, as their startup competitors are already there.

Going to a public cloud may not be the answer for all aspects of financial services, but there are

viable alternatives to entirely open systems. Mobile applications move the balance towards more

use of cloud systems. In terms of processes being put into the cloud i.e. SaaS and BpaS, we are just

at the beginning of the journey, examples have already been given here of highly complex systems

and regulation‐dense processes being migrated to the cloud, there are many more opportunities to

replicate these kinds of business models

6 Quant Connect and Derivitec are illustrated for educational and academic purposes. There is no recommendation whatsoever as to their suitability for use in any investment or other purpose. If any person is considering making any form of investments they should seek the advice of a FCA approved investment advisor.


7. Entrepreneurial Opportunities*

The cloud and its associated driving force, mobile technology, are both in the early stages of their lifecycle Hosting Centres ‐ IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Specialise and customise specifically for the needs of the financial services industry...

Security, compliance, standards and regulations and data protection are strategic issues in Financial Services, supply the needs of this value chain and focus on specific sub‐markets.

Build a Cloud designed specifically for financial services clients with all of the approvals and security systems but with the same ease of use as the latest public cloud operators.

Bringing the ease of use of Luna Cloud to secure Financial Services hosting hubs has to be a business opportunity

Use price discovery and cloud broker sites to indentify cost arbitrage opportunities

Create a financial open market in Cloud computing resources

First generation cloud computing service providers are in a vulnerable place in the market for services as they have developed from a hosted data centre framework. As Cloud costs become more transparent they will be under more competitive pressure. There is market share to be gained.

As cloud and mobile expand, security, authentication, and fraud detection are opportunities

Cost, process, UI (user interfaces) , UX (User Experience) offer opportunities

The UK Government is ahead of the industry in adoption of services

Cloud based process

The market is at its beginning, only the most obvious services have been put into the cloud.

Highly complex, regulated processes have been successfully transferred to become cloud based services.

Capital market processes can be successfully put into the cloud.

Xero’s market and functional segmentations are a case study in how to cloud base accounting software.

There are many other generic processes within the financial services industry, such as pension administration, fund management back offices, insurance claim processing, risk metrics, etc… that could be transferred to the cloud.

The UK Government ‐ all existing systems have to be tested against cloud based options when contracts are renewed.

BpaS is underdeveloped in FinTech markets The Cloud Based Bank or Insurance Company

The Ultimate challenge for FinTech Entrepreneurs is to put a bank/insurance platform into the cloud, get it regulated and certified then offer a Bank or Insurance Company as a service.

*see legal disclaimer on page 3.


Appendix 1 ‐ Cloud Industry Forum Members

Website:www.uk-plc.net

@UK PLC is the leading European Cloud Platform. The platform supports rapid application development via its Application Generator, and allows end

users to create forms and pages. The core application is the @UK PLC ecommerce marketplace that is pre-integrated to all major finance systems and used by NHS, Schools, Universities, Colleges and Local Authorities to trade with their major suppliers. The major suppliers use it as their global ecommerce platform that works across every country in the world. Our cloud based Spend Analysis Spend Insight grew by 280% last year and has now passed the £100 billion of spend analyzed using breakthrough Artificial Intelligence technology.

Website:www.abiquo.com

Abiquo delivers the industry’s most advanced Enterprise Cloud software solution, enabling enterprises and service providers to rapidly build and

manage a fully automated and governed, self-service, multi-hypervisor cloud from globally deployed resources. Abiquo’s award-winning solution has been highly rated in independent market and vendor reports by leading industry analyst firms, and its customer base includes many Global 2000 enterprises, government contractors and leading MSPs. Abiquo is privately held, and operates from headquarters in the UK with offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and through its extensive global partner network.

Website:www.ansgroup.co.uk

ANS Group has experienced 80% year-on-year growth since 2009 and currently has a turnover of over £50m. ANS specialise in providing managed compute, storage and network infrastructures that can either be built on-premise or consumed as a cloud-based solution in the company’s

Tier 2 and Tier 3 data centres. ANS Group has been continuously developing and enhancing the company’s i3 in the cloud and data centre solutions as an alternative to the on-premise ANS i3 solution.

Website:www.apmg-international.comEmail

APMG-International is a global examination institute providing accreditation and certification services. Via our network of Accredited

Consultancy and Training Organisations, we help end users develop their professional skills and organisations improve their processes through the adoption of worldwide best practice.

Website:atos.net

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is an international information technology services company with annual 2012 revenue of EUR 8.8 billion and 76,400 employees in 47 countries. Serving a global client base, it delivers Hi-Tech

Transactional Services, Consulting & Technology Services, Systems Integration and Managed Services. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, it works with clients across the following market sectors: Manufacturing, Retail & Services;

Website: www.channelcloud.co.ukEmail

ChannelCloud, established ten years ago in the United States, launched in the UK and Ireland in January 2011 and is rapidly making its presence

felt in the Cloud arena.


ChannelCloud is a new era cloud computing solution provider. It has developed a first-of-kind fully integrated cloud platform, and is building a federation of ChannelCloud partners across the UK and Ireland who share a vision for a new, truly comprehensive method of delivering IT services to clients.

Website: www.claranet.co.ukEmail

Claranet is one of Europe’s leading integrated cloud service providers. We have a passion for internet technologies and what they can do for our customers. We offer businesses the core components of cloud services –

Networks, Hosting, Application – with a single end-to-end SLA that guarantees the highest levels of availability. Our latest offering – the Virtual Data Centre – is the first truly integrated Infrastructure as a Service available to the European market. It offers a new way of managing IT infrastructure, delivering on demand and self-provisioned resources.

Claranet’s cloud hosting customers include Amnesty, Channel 5, the De Vere Group, and the F.A.

Website:www.csscorp.com

CSS Corp is a global Technology Support company offering innovative solutions on Cloud and Mobility. Its path breaking innovations and IPs (Intellectual Properties) are being used by organizations globally in

lowering their operating cost, enhancing productivity and deriving value for their customers. Remote Infrastructure Management (RIMS), Application Development, Network Services has also augmented CSS Corp in delivering value to their customers. With quality and innovation being key focus at CSS Corp, 5500 professionals with diversified cultural backgrounds are involved in creating solutions for tomorrow.

Website: www.databarracks.com

Databarracks provide cloud hosting and disaster recovery services with a focus on security and support.

Established in 2003, Databarracks was one of the UK's first providers of managed backup and disaster recovery services. We have since grown rapidly to become one of the most technologically advanced innovators in online backup, virtualisation and the cloud, delivering effective solutions to companies of all sizes and complexities.

We combine ultra-secure hosting with the most resilient cloud infrastructure and a commitment to providing outstanding 24/7 support.

In addition to backup, disaster recovery, IaaS and Hosted Exchange solutions we also help business move to the cloud with our Design & Build and Manage & Support cloud integration services.

Website:www.digitalrealty.com

Digital Realty – Data Centre Solutions

Digital Realty focuses on delivering customer driven data centre solutions by providing secure, reliable and cost effective facilities that

meet each customer's unique data centre needs. Digital Realty's customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services.

Website:www.fasthosts.co.uk

Fasthosts is a leading and long established web hosting and IT services provider. We host over 1 million domains and handle over 42 million emails securely and efficiently each day. All our services can be self-

managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based Control Panel that provides our customers with unparalleled online control, enabling them to manage hosted services including domain registrations, shared web hosting, business-class email, virtual servers, dedicated servers, secure online storage, secure online


backup, software-as-a-service, internet merchant accounts and unlimited broadband internet access. Fasthosts has been awarded Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud Partner of the Year 2010, and Microsoft Global Hosting Partner of the Year 2011. Fasthosts' maintains an award-winning and highly successful reseller channel. Headquartered in the UK, we operate 24/7 from our dedicated data centres that serve the UK and USA on territory.

Website:www.firehost.co.uk

FireHost, is a secure cloud hosting company that delivers hosting solutions to healthcare IT, SaaS and eCommerce around the world that have HIPAA or PCI compliance and high traffic needs. Advanced

security and a comprehensive portfolio of hosting solutions helps FireHost protect companies from threats to their websites, applications, and valuable data. Additionally, every FireHost Secure Cloud Server is fully managed by a staff of expert engineers available 24x7x365 via phone, liv chat or ticket.

Website:www.interxion.com

Interxion is a leading provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services in Europe, serving over 1,200 customers through 28 data centres in 11 European countries. Interxion's uniformly designed, energy-efficient data centres offer customers extensive security and uptime

for their mission-critical applications.

With connectivity provided by 350 carriers and ISPs and 18 European Internet exchanges across its footprint, Interxion has created content and connectivity hubs that foster growing customer communities of interest. For more information, please visit www.interxion.com.

Website:www.inty.com

intY operates in the rapidly growing cloud computing market space where it delivers enterprise class solutions both directly and indirectly, via domestic and global strategic partners. Founded 14 years ago, intY has been at the forefront of pay as you go managed IT and security services from its inception.

intY delivers Microsoft messaging and collaboration solutions which are integrated with intY internet security and complementary OEM applications, to deliver a one touch deployment and management solution.

Website: www.nasstar.com

Nasstar is a pure play Hosted Desktop Service Provider and one of the world’s pioneers of multi-tenanted hosted desktop, having developed its platform since 2004.Nasstar’s solution is future-proofed because the

platform host hundreds of different business apps from many different vendors, all delivered through a hosted desktop interface and managed by our fully featured App Portal.

Nasstar distributes its solution through channel partners and provides a fully white-labeled App Portal to enable its partners and their end customers to manage their Hosted Desktop and apps.

Nasstar was founded in 1998 as a hosting company and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. The company is IS027001 certified.

Website:www.nationalcloud.co.uk

National Cloud is a fully managed, on-demand, shared cloud infrastructure offering. National Cloud is unique - provided as a service,


it is powered by ANS Group's Infrastructure 3, known as i3. i3, a concept developed by ANS brings together the latest best-of-breed technology in compute, network, storage and virtualisation, delivering an affordable solution that comes with strict SLAs that will guarantee availability and performance. ANS has unrivalled expertise in this area, and was Cisco's first European partner to achieve the 'cloud infrastructure status', as such the National Cloud offering is perfectly positioned to deliver fast, secure, flexible and scalable infrastructure cloud solutions, that reduce risk to your organisation.

Website:www.outsourcery.co.uk

Outsourcery is one of the world's leading providers of Cloud-based IT and unified communications solutions for business as well as an award winning provider of professional services. Microsoft named Outsourcery as its worldwide 'Hosting Solutions Partner of the Year' and 'Dynamics Hosting Partner of the Year' at the 2010 Worldwide Partner Awards.

The company is the UK's leading provider of hosted Dynamics CRM and is named in the Presidents Club for Microsoft Dynamics; one of top 5% of Microsoft Dynamics partners worldwide based on sales achievement. The company is proud to be carbon neutral and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with seven competencies.

Website:www.phoenix.co.uk Phoenix is uniquely placed to provide medium to large enterprises with cloud-enabled services that will increase efficiency and reduce costs, with the ability to scale your IT infrastructure up and down on a pay-as-you-go

basis. With Phoenix, the benefits of cloud can be enjoyed without compromising the security of your data. With 5 of our own datacentres around the UK, a Phoenix private cloud is one that you can touch and trust. As a result, migrating to the cloud with Phoenix offers enhanced risk management and business continuity.

Website:http://uk.rise.co

Rise operates an Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform to supply high-quality cloud computing solutions for resale by our partners, based on our DataCenter on Demand™ service. We equip our channel partners with the infrastructure they need to provide cloud services for the SMB market.

This includes virtual and dedicated servers, storage, backup, web hosting and disaster recovery, all of which are hosted from the secure infrastructure of Rise's UK or US data centres (serving our customers within those territories) with 24/7/365 support. Rise infrastructure supports all server based applications, and our cloud services can be implemented as a stand-alone service or securely integrated with an existing on-premise business network.

Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704;TSE: 4704), a global cloud securityleader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers. A pioneer in server security with over 20 years'

experience, we deliver top-ranked client, server and cloud-based security that fits our customers' and partners' needs, stops new threats faster, and protects data in physical, virtualized and cloud environments. Powered by the industry-leading Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ cloud computing security infrastructure, our products and services stop threats where they emerge – from the Internet.

Website:www.ukfast.co.uk

UKFast is a specialist in managed hosting solutions dealing with blue chip organisations and competitive SMBs. Having worked with Microsoft to develop cloud platforms, UKFast launched the UK’s first large scale cloud environment in summer 2009, developed primarily with Hyper-V technology. Today, the UKFast Cloud caters


for both Windows and Linux users and as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner UKFast has a 95.8% positive customer feedback rating.

Website: www.vmware.com VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that

enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

Website:www.webroot.co.uk Webroot provides industry-leading Internet security solutions for consumers,

enterprises and small and medium businesses worldwide. Webroot products consistently receive top review ratings by respected third parties and have been adopted by millions globally. With a wide range of online security offerings, Webroot protects individuals and corporate networks from threats such as viruses, hackers, data exposure, spam, spyware and more, utilising cloud computing power in its security solutions.Cloud Computing Costs – Comparison EuropeCloudera.com 10GB Storage, RAM 1.5GB, Linux


Appendix 2 Clouderado.com – Cloud Comparison Site sample page

Cloud Provider Cloud Server Summary Price

Elastic Hosts 1.5 GB RAM / 1x 0.5 GHz VCPUs show details

$35 £23

E24 Cloud.com Standard 1 Core / 2 GB RAM show details Double 1st charge with promo code xAMmEe22

$37 PLN 122

Linode.com Linode 2 GB show details

$40

Joyent Cloud Standard 1.75 GB RAM show details

$40

Cloud Sigma SSD 1.5 GB RAM / 1x 0.5 GHz VCPUs show details

$42

Amazon Web Ser Standard Small + 10 GB EBS show details

$49

VPS Net 3 Nodes show details

$54

Dimension Data 1.5 GB RAM / 1 VCPUs Instance show details

$66

Go Grid 2 GB RAM / 2x VCPU (Medium) show details $100 on start with promo code CPcloudo

$74

ExoScale 2 GB RAM / 2 VCPUs (Small) show details

$80

Sungard 2 GB RAM / 1 VCPU show details 20% off first 6 months for Cloudorado users

$84

S Strato Gen 1.5 GB RAM / 1 VCPUs Instance show details

$87 £57

R

R Rackspace 2 GB RAM Instance show details

$88 £58

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