Firms greatly expand use of managed outsourcing.

Hedge funds are ramping up use of cloud-based outsourcing services as they seek to trim overhead and focus on their core business.

PVE Capital, a London-based macro credit fund manager that was set up in 2009, migrated to the Options PIPE Core service in 2011.

The service enables PVE to consolidate operations in multiple geographic regions.

“We have offices in London and Malta, and wanted to integrate them without creating a lot of overhead costs,”  Joe Vittoria, founding partner and chief operating officer at PVE Capital, told Markets Media. “Options IT is a high quality, robust environment that allows a smaller manager like us to obtain an infrastructure that was previously only available to larger managers, without sacrificing the one-on-one assistance you get with in-house systems.”

The Options PIPE platform is a fully managed global financial technology infrastructure service providing ultra-low latency market data, execution connectivity, colocated managed hosting for financial applications and a complete financial office solution for financial services firms.

“We purchase our administrative and back-office services from specialized third parties, but they’re installed at Options IT,” said Vittoria. “It allows us to focus on our core business of investment management.”

Chelsea Technologies, a provider of high-end IT design, implementation, hosting and support services to the financial industry, had strong growth in 2011 following the launch of its hybrid cloud service for the financial industry.

Chelsea Technologies hybrid cloud solution offers a best-of-breed, bespoke, and seamless technology solution for financial services firms seeking to leverage both internal and private cloud technologies to run their business, the company said.

Observing a 20 percent growth in 2011, Chelsea Technologies signed 18 new clients, most of which were firm launches in the alternative investment management industry.

The firm also formed a global partnership with PTS Consulting, and IT consultancy and project management firm with extensive international coverage, to provide a seamless, global IT consulting and support service for financial services firms.