The Era of ETRM in the Cloud A ComTechAdvisory Whitepaper
Concerns over data security , including having sensitive trade data in the cloud had eased considerably , probably as a result of the relatively ubiquitous nature of cloud-based applications in all walks of life ; even including personal banking . By 2016 7 , ComTech had estimated a growth rate for cloud-based CTRM solutions of about 20 % per annum , far in excess of the 3 % growth forecast for traditionally installed solutions .
The appetite for cloud solutions to support trading and risk management has grown considerably over the last 5-years as a result of several inter-related factors , summarized as follows ,
/ Lower commodity prices , higher costs , and a need to find more cost effective and less disruptive solutions to address the margin squeeze ,
/ Structural changes in the industry , from a dramatic change in the generation mix and the exit of many of the banks and financial players , have had significant and ongoing impacts for almost all industry participants ,
/ A larger number of smaller players seeking solutions to replace spreadsheets in order to address audit and compliance requirements from regulators , lending institutions and stakeholders ,
/ Increasing numbers of smaller players as disgruntled traders from banks and utilities have spun up their own trading firms .
The era of the cloud has arrived for trading and risk management as it offers a cost effective and agile approach at a time when the industry demand for such solutions has risen .
ETRM IN THE CLOUD
Many ETRM solutions for electric power and gas in Europe were developed on legacy architectures , making true cloud deployment more difficult . However , a small number of next generation vendors have come to the fore in recent years with ETRM solutions based on more modern technologies that were often built with cloud deployment in mind . One of those is Contigo , who from day one , have offered their products in the cloud and have long utilized the cloud as a means to keep users up to speed with new developments .
Of course , as a particular technology or methodology gains traction in any industry , there is a rush on the part of vendors to adopt it , or at least , claim to have adopted it . Today , almost all ETRM vendors will claim to offer a cloud approach , though many will simply utilize screen-scraping software like Citrix to provide cloud access to their legacy application . Unfortunately , the benefits of cloud deployment are often lost using a screen-scraping approach , as the underlying software was never designed for the cloud .
Cloud software can also be offered in a multi-tenanted environment in which users access shared applications , though with compartmentalized databases so
7 . 2016 Market Update , Commodity Technology Advisory Report , 2016
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