In the last couple of years, investment banks have been having quite a tough time, things have not been very easy for them, although now it seems there is something of a recovery taking place. One of the ways they have been able to get through these difficult times is through more intelligent use of technology, to help them save on costs, for example. However, the banks will need to continue looking at how they can make best use of technology if they want to stay compliant with the various regulations that are coming out around risk management procedures and practices. In order to perform the required risk modelling in this new world order, it is estimated the banks will need something like 10x the computing power they were using before the crisis. So the question is, where will they get these resources? Existing data centres are becoming heavily over-utilized and there is little spare capacity. In fact, there is one investment bank reputed to use more data across its data centres than the entire city centre of Manchester! This may be an urban myth but it's probably not too far from the truth. Accordingly, many banks are now looking seriously into making more use of cloud computing and grid computing services. This could be a good option, particularly because of the way banks utilise computing power. Typically, in order to run risk simulations, they need to make very heavy use of computing at certain times of the day, whereas at other times, their computers are virtually idle. So utilization of existing resources probably runs at less than 50% some of the time. Sharing compute resources and using cloud computing would seem like the sensible answer, but there are problems associated with that approach. First of all, the high performance computing (HPC) applications typically run by investment banks don't sit too well on the cloud. This isn't the biggest issue however. The key problem is that banks generally don't like to share, particularly not with their competitors. Security is also a big issue, although cloud services are generally seen as pretty secure these days, security issues around cloud are still causing reluctance on the part of the banks. Then of course there is the whole issue of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), for example the need to complete risk calculations by a specific time of the morning, which is another problematic area with shared resources. The answer could be a new paradigm known as Grid as a Service (GaaS), whereby high performance compute is offered on-demand, across the grid, on a pay-as-you-go basis. Banks could encapsulate specific calculations and send them off to allocated compute resources in a shared environment. This would allow banks to exploit all the various cloud infrastructure, services, middleware and compute power. GaaS is certainly set to grow and could change the face of computing in the investment banking world. CL King & Associates is a full-service investment bank and provides investment banking, equity research, sales and trading, and investor services to corporations and institutions. The focus is on debt and equity capital markets remain the core of our robust platform supported by a well-respected research, sales, trading and clearing operation. Read also: Corporate Trade Finance Services and its Profits
0 Comments
The human society is fast consuming the fossil fuels that took trillions of years to develop. It has been projected by scientists that these energy sources will not last long and were therefore called non-renewable energy sources. But humans have always depended on energy to meet the technological advances that they developed and have gotten used to. With the depletion of these non-renewable resources, the threat that the world will go back to its prehistoric roots of zero technology is a serious one. This threat has led scientists and engineers to look for ways to divert usage of non-renewable energy sources to ones that can be renewed over and over. Science developed ways and means to convert the energy sources from raw material to potent energy. Thus, renewable energy technologies were created. Bio-energy from gaseous products of decomposition, geothermal and solar, wind and ocean sources, and hydropower has been diverted to create renewable energy. But because the development of ways to conserve energy can be very costly, a lot of ventures on this field have been abandoned. It seems that the apparatuses and machines involved are too expensive and produce too little energy to supply the needs of a large energy demand. For example, the wind is one of the most powerful sources of energy. But in order to harness the wind's power, vast areas of land must be acquired, and huge windmills must be put up. Moreover, even if this can be bought at a certain price, extensive research needs to be undertaken to correctly put up the structures necessary. If this is not achieved, the windmills may be present in the correct location, but the energy that will be produced will not be worth the expenses. To address this serious issue on energy, energy investment banking evolved to help clients in financing their ventures involving renewable energies. The banks assist the clients in acquiring the correct technologies while offering them services to address the financial and legal aspects of their activities. Usually, banks involved in energy investment banking would incorporate a lot of add-ons to the investment to benefit the client and hasten the project's commencement. For example, a qualified research project that would aim to harness the sun's energy would need new technologies to concentrate the diffused solar energy. These gadgets are usually expensive and require expertise. Allowing the clients to acquire these machines, therefore, would propel the study and hasten the possible energy production. Clients of these banks with energy investment banking services usually include a wide range of entities that may be simple scientists who need funds to support their project or large institutions and governments trying to find ways to solve their own energy requirements. It is therefore necessary for these types of banks to create services that would be accessible to different clients. A good bank of this genre can easily combine the principles of banking with the concepts of science to provide economic, as well as ecological, solutions to various scientific or government energy problems. CL King & Associates is a full-service investment bank and provides investment banking, equity research, sales and trading, and investor services to corporations and institutions. The focus is on debt and equity capital markets remain the core of our robust platform supported by a well-respected research, sales, trading and clearing operation. If you're still doubtful about how to proceed with your investment goals then contact us at 518.447.8050. Also read: Corporate Advisory Services from CL King & Associates |
ContactAlbany Archives
April 2019
Categories |