The Problem
A. Do you need to upload positions into your risk system to calculate analytics?
B. Is your risk system storing holdings data that needs reconciliation?
C. Are you running batch programs to calculate Risk?
D. Can you calculate risk analytics using real-time holdings data?
E. Do you need to batch your calculations in the risk system?
If any of the above is true then firms probably need to revisit their Risk System architecture as they move to the ‘Cloud’.
Solution: Key features of Risk systems in the ‘Cloud’ –
1. Risk system is built using ‘microservices’ architecture
2. Risk systems should access required Holdings/Market data using API only
3. No Holdings and/or Market data should be stored in the Risk system
4. Risk System should be calculating analytics and storing only Risk related data.
5. Risk systems should provide access to its data using REST API
Benefits –
– Reduced time-to-market when changes required to such systems
– Scalability provided by above architecture allows for ‘pay per use’ business model that is necessary to position investment firms for the future.