“Good tools make good craftsmen”
This quote shows the importance of having the right equipment to be efficient. You wouldn’t choose an generic office pc if you were a graphic designer, right? Nor would you choose a PC for gaming if you were only using it for browsing. Financial services could mean a lot of things and each sector doesn’t t have the same needs.
The challenges of IT management
What does IT management refer to? It could be defined by monitoring and administrating the IT system of an entire organisation. Meaning hardware, software and network. To choose the proper equipment for your services means, first, to understand the implication and the current challenges of IT management.
Why is it important though?
The quick answer is that the entire activity of an organization relies on its IT infrastructure.
Security
We talk a lot about cybersecurity, however hardware security matters as well. One of the best practices would be to renew your hardware consistently to make sure it is up to date. Old equipment gets less efficient with time, the management software can be outdated making it more prone to security breaches. This is the reason why it is critical to make sure that your entire IT infrastructure (hardware and software) are up to date.
Data management
Data is a valuable resource, and it plays a major role in every sector. Whether you are in the financial service industry, in media and entertainment, research and education, or even in public services. Data enables success, gives insights into the market, and helps organizations to make decisions while managing the risk.
Protecting these assets are then critical. Nobody is safe from data loss. Having a proper structure to store your data, having backups, and easy access without scarifying security are critical to protect your data.
Workloads
When you have varied workloads and need to have issues addressed, workers will need:
- Proper training or skill development,
- Adapted equipment and tools to work on,
Having high performance hardware that can run heavy workloads will help staff stay efficient by reducing time-consuming tasks that the hardware can take on instead.
Internet of Things
Internet of Things or IoT refers to all the devices that are connected to internet, and ‘all’ means literally all the devices. From computers, smartphones, watches, to cars and smart cities. It is something to keep an eye on as it helps financial services:
- To engage with their customers more efficiently,
- Gather real time data,
- To reduce transaction costs.
Assessing the needs of the different financial services
Each service has its own needs, and it is important to understand them to choose the right equipment. The right IT infrastructure to fit your needs and that can handle your workloads.
Financial services : High Frequency Trading
High Frequency Trading or HFT is based on traders relying on computers and software to determine with great precision the right time to buy and sell stocks.
While in traditional trading, traders can take hours to take a decision on a stock purchase. Precision is key in this kind of trading as it is a matter of nanoseconds. This is the reason why data should come and go and why it needs to be analyzed at lightspeed. Opportunities can be missed by traders that won’t have the time to see them. HFT do.
Financial services : Banking
In the last decade, banks evolved a lot. From an all-paper management to a full digitalization of the banking business. Banks process and deal with a lot of sensible data and transactions. Security and accessible data are the keywords.
Due to the sensitive nature of its activity, the relationship between a bank and its customer relies on trust. And the way to maintain this trust is through security:
- Encryption,
- Access authentication,
- Data stored on a secured server.
Financial services : Insurance companies
Like banks, insurance companies used to work primarily with papers. Nowadays, policyholders can access to their data directly online. They can manage and subscribe to policies, follow reimbursement status, and can even chat with an advisor.
Nowadays everything can constitute an insurance policy: house, car, health, pets… These contracts hold a lot of information from the policyholders: sensible data.
The digitalization of financial services changed the rules: more reliable, more productive, and more secured. These are the rules for a perfect IT infrastructure. It allowed businesses and customers not to only access their account but to manage it as well at all time. And not only 24/7, ensuring a buisiness continuity during crisis is critical to the trust and reputation put in these organizations.
Pairing the right solution to your IT infrastructure
After assessing your needs, which solution would best suit to your activities?
High Density Server : The all in one
If you are in need of flexibility, reliability, productivity and security, you should adopt an ORION High density Server as the ORION HD520D-G5-24T4N. Its 3rd Gen Intel Xeon processor is still one of the most powerful for heavy workloads and multitasking.
It is the ideal solution if you are looking for high performing applications and cloud services. Cloud banking is a very trendy solution as it allows quick and easy access to data.
High Frequency Server : The lower the better
In the stock market and more precisely in high frequency trading there is a real need for high-speed equipment to process, analyze data and execute orders. Low latency servers would be the best choice. Our ORION HF314-G4 High Frequency Server is one the fastest currently on the market. Equipped with Intel Core i9-10980XE and a memory up to 128 GB, this solution will provide you with speed and performance that will bring your workload to the next level.
The difference between a high-frequency and a high-density server would lie in its data processing speed. A major component in financial workloads.
Finding the right fit with Hypertec
Since its creation, in 1984, Hypertec is here to provide you with a customized solution designed to fit your needs. Hypertec experts assess and listen to your demands and deliver the best solution for your workloads.
If you are interested in one of the products listed above or want to discuss your project with one of our representatives: Contact us today!
This post is also available in: FR
