Hedge funds and other capital markets firms are using the cloud to take advantage of performance and economic benefits to scale more effectively, run operations more efficiently and focus on core business.

“Throughout the past year, the major theme we have seen in many companies across the financial sector is a realization that outsourcing to the private cloud is not only a viable cost-saving measure, but also a way to improve efficiencies and scalability,” said Jason Elmer, director of business development at Abacus Group, a provider of outsourced IT services to hedge funds.

Abacus closed out 2014 with a 50 percent annual revenue growth propelled by the demand for its AbacusFLEX private cloud. “Due to the increased regulatory demands and added cost pressures for hedge funds, more funds are selecting the AbacusFLEX platform to run all their IT-as-a-service in the most cost-effective manner available,” said Elmer.

In June 2014, Abacus launched FlexDrive, an on-demand cloud storage, sharing and synchronization service that allows hedge funds and private equity firms to securely share and transfer files across users and devices.

In the wake of a number of security breaches in the public cloud, Elmer sees cybersecurity becoming a major focus for many financial corporations in 2015.

The demand for Abacus’ private cloud solutions has been fueled by an increased interest in managed services and hosted solutions from the financial services industry. Concerns of security and lack of control are top challenges to cloud adoption, Elmer said, citing research by Aite Group.

“Abacus has made significant investments in these areas to help clients overcome these obstacles, including appointing senior executives to oversee its information security and financial services initiatives and opening new offices in both Dallas and Los Angeles,” Elmer said, noting that the company predicts that these investments will fuel continued strong growth throughout 2015.

Featured image via Dollar Photo Club