Over the past two years, US firms have experienced a significant increase in the number of mandatory regulatory reports, including the future Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) requirements applicable to firms doing business in Europe, new reporting requirements for swaps, the SEC’s Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE), and the Treasury Department’s Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (Reg SCI). Each of these reporting requirements could require some financial firms to process approximately a terabyte of metadata every day. This has resulted in financial firms’ renewed interest in leveraging cloud technology.
Although it may seem like a recent technology trend in conversation, early network references to cloud computing date back to the 1960s. The cloud computing discussed today has been derived by various technology marketing campaigns to make the language of engineers colloquial. The cloud is an easy to adopt metaphor that has a myriad of meanings; for example, firms that allow employees to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) or issue laptops for remote access, are technically using cloud computing. Continue reading