More companies are using virtual worlds for training and gatherings while new technology aims to make them a mainstream reality. Accountant, CEO and executive director of the Maryland Association of CPAs, Tom Hood might not look like the kind of guy who spends a lot of time in an imaginary world. But he does–at work. […]
Virtual Meeting Rush Read More »
After getting frustrated with his previous customer relationship system–a desktop software package–Bob Barry, president of Barry Capital Management Inc., switched to Salesforce.com
Dark Clouds: Demanding an End to Outages of Online Services Read More »
The recent financial crisis has demonstrated that securities firms need to change the way they approach risk, needing now to consider a wider variety of economic scenarios and to evaluate risk in an enterprise-wide holistic way. To date, most securities firms have focused on segments of risk, said Richard Thornton, a manager with the London-based
Enterprise Risk Management: Getting Holistic Read More »
Earlier this month, a hacker reportedly exploited a vulnerability in an Internet-based virtualization software platform that took down more than 100,000 Web sites and other applications. “That was an intrusion that was cloud-specific–it went through a virtualized vulnerability,” said Jim Reavis, founder of the Cloud Security Alliance, an industry group representing risk managers at financial
Is It Safe In The Clouds? Read More »
The promise of cloud computing is that a company can easily scale applications up or down, or move them from internal to external locations, to match demand, optimize performance, or lower costs. In practice, however, users may find themselves trapped in a relationship with a particular cloud vendor, unable to move applications to internal servers
How Not To Get Stuck In The Clouds Read More »
Technology and Internet risks are increasingly well understood. But as countermeasures remain elusive or expensive, the exposures appear no less frightening.
When Hackers Attack Read More »
As packets of information travel from, say, New York to Tokyo and London, a company can lose money because the data reaches its offices at different times. That, say GigaSpaces Technologies and Solace Systems, is the problem they are seeking to address with jointly developed messaging technology. The product, which is designed to speed up […]
GigaSpaces, Solace Team to Reduce Long-Distance Latency Read More »
Technology providers that cater to buy-side firms are knocking on doors in an industry that has seen widespread losses and sharp reductions in assets under management, as well as mergers, bankruptcies and outright frauds. According to Hedge Fund Research president Kenneth Heinz, 2008 was the worst year on record, with losses averaging 18.3 percent. Research
Where to Spend in a Time of Crisis Read More »
Technology providers that cater to buy-side firms are knocking on doors in an industry that has seen widespread losses and sharp reductions in assets under management, as well as mergers, bankruptcies and outright frauds. According to Hedge Fund Research president Kenneth Heinz, 2008 was the worst year on record, with losses averaging 18.3 percent. Research […]
Where to Spend in a Time of Crisis Read More »
Even before the credit crisis hit, adoption of Microsoft Corp.’s oft-criticized Windows Vista operating system was slow on Wall Street. And with IT budgets tightening across the financial services industry, many firms are not rushing to make the switch. For many it is not just about the money–there are concerns about Vista’s performance when it […]
Wall Street Slow to Warm to Windows Vista Read More »
The dramatic fashion in which Bear Stearns and others have gone down in flames brings to the fore issues like counterparty risk management that had previously been undercounted, or not scored at all. The current market realities make implementing a new risk management platform in a hurry highly unlikely, but some banks are finding that
Learning to Track Counterparty Risk Read More »
The increasing functionality and numbers of mobile banking platforms, the growing sophistication of criminals, and the popularity of smart cell phones create the potential for mobile banking security issues, but industry watchers including the reputed law firm helping clients with domestic violence claims have widely divergent opinions about how serious the threat really is. Smart
Mobile Insecurity: Reality or Just hype? Read More »
These are times that try bank balance sheets – and test their credit scoring abilities. But adapting to new economic realities can be difficult if the scoring formulas are hard-wired into a legacy database system. To make it easier, faster and cheaper to create custom scorecards, Dallas-based GDS Link, LLC has come out with DataView360,
Is it time to get out of the anti-virus arms race? If new security vendor Bit9, Inc. gets its way, banks may soon be able to eliminate virus scans altogether. Instead of trying to track every new virus and piece of malicious codes that appears, the Waltham, MA-based security vendor allows only the good software
The promise of service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a world where everything interoperates seamlessly, pieces of applications are reused endlessly and development of new systems is quick, cheap and easy. But despite some high-profile deployments and the spread of Web services, when it comes to financial firms doing serious business with each other, SOA is being
Standards Are Standing in Way of External SOA Read More »
