New service delivery models for capital markets apps make inroads.

Delivery models for capital markets applications are evolving at a rapid clip, as the advent of hosted, managed services, and cloud-based solutions enables firms of all sizes to mount high-performance trading platforms.

CFN Services, for example, has launched Alpha Platform On-Demand, a public cloud tailored to global financial markets across multiple liquidity venues, such as equities, options, futures, derivatives and FX.

The new service extends CFN Services’ Alpha Platform, a private cloud for ultra-low-latency market data delivery and trade execution.

“As a private cloud, Alpha Platform has provided a dedicated infrastructure hosted for each customer,” Mark Casey, president and CEO of CFN Services, told Markets Media. “With the addition of the On-Demand component, we are extending the private cloud to enable firms to self-provision business-critical applications and services.”

To create Alpha Platform On-Demand, CFN Services has incorporated technology from Tier 3, an enterprise cloud provider, to reduce the “performance drag” related to virtualization from more than 25 % to less than 5%, according to Casey.

Cloud-based solutions are gaining traction within the capital markets industry.

NYSE Technologies’ Capital Markets Community Platform, a cloud system launched in 2011 in collaboration with VWare and EMC, leverages NYSE’s technology resources, including its Mahwah, N.J. and Basildon, Essex data centers to house transaction services, market data, and infrastructure.

The platform uses NYSE Technologies’ Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) and Liquidity Center Network to provide connectivity to trading hubs around the world.

Eze Castle Integration, a provider of IT services to hedge funds, has increased its cloud computing customer base to more than 140 financial industry firms, as the company works to deliver a range of apps and services via the cloud.

Eze Castle Integration’s private cloud services portfolio includes horizontal, enterprise apps such as office, voice, archiving and backup and recovery, as well as vertical application hosing for order management, portfolio management, accounting, and research management. In addition, it provides FIX connectivity to market data providers such as NYSE Euronext, SunGard, and Thomson Reuters.