Cloud technology is one of the year’s hottest business buzzwords, but talking about it and implementing it are often two different things.

Many end users of financial application software are tantalized by the cloud’s appeal of reducing in-house IT expenses, but neither they nor their software providers usually possess the requisite tools and know-how.

That’s the premise behind Eze App Cloud, a private cloud application delivery platform developed exclusively for application providers built by Eze Castle Integration, a provider of strategic IT services to hedge funds.

Built on the company’s Eze Private Cloud, Eze App Cloud enables application providers to combine their software with a cloud infrastructure.

“When we engaged with different vendors to see how they would deploy software in a cloud or virtualized environment, we determined that a lot of vendors have a cloud strategy, but it’s difficult to implement because of the costly infrastructure that’s required,” said Mark Coriaty, director of strategic services at Eze Castle Integration. “They approached us to see if we could deliver our cloud environment to their customers.”

Currently, there are 60 different applications residing on the Eze Private Cloud. “Vendors have many clients who want their application delivered via the cloud, but the vendor lacks a cloud strategy,” said Coriaty. “We have become a trusted third party for the application provider, by hosting multiple versions of their application in our cloud and delivering it to their clients.”

Data centers play a central role in delivering cloud-based applications, and are the focal points for “financial ecosystems”—a critical mass of exchanges, alternative trading systems (ATSs), sell-side and buy-side firms, and technology vendors.

“The key implications are that ‘community’ data centers where such financial ecosystems come together have become even more important,” said Patrick Lastennet, financial services director of marketing and business development at data center provider Interxion.
Interxion’s London data center, for instance, hosts an excess of 15 exchange and/or ATS IT infrastructures and more than 200 capital market participants.

“As a result, industry efficiency in terms of trading infrastructure has greatly improved, reducing both costs and complexity,” said Lastennet.

Using Eze App Cloud, application providers can capitalize on the market’s growing preference for application delivery via a hosted cloud platform, simplify application deployment and management, and utilize Eze Castle’s ECINet Private Network, which serves as a communications gateway to more than 400 buy-side firms and offers direct connectivity to key trading counterparties, said Coriaty at Eze Castle Integration.

In a 2012 survey conducted by Eze Castle Integration, of firms managing assets under $20 million, 68% are using the cloud for basic business functions, while 50% are using the cloud for financial application hoisting.