WFIC Day 3: Partly Cloudy

After three days in San Francisco, I feel like an expert in technology. At least technology company locations. I know who’s who in the Bay Area, and I know who to look out for in the future. Based on today’s discussions at the World Financial Information Conference, the ones to watch are the companies offering cloud technology.

The use of cloud technology in the data management space has continued to increase in recent years, and according to speakers on a panel about the latest technology developments, this is only the beginning. As the volume of data increases and firms are under pressure to reduce cost, more and more will turn to the cloud.

Yet, security is still seen as the number one challenge related to taking the cloud route. But the level of security required vary depending on data types. Speakers highlighted that firms can pick and choose what data to manage in the cloud – it is not a case of moving all content to the cloud in one go.

Public market data was mentioned as something that could be a good starting point. I think certain types of reference data could also be added to a list of where to start. There’s been a lot of talk about symbology recently, and this type of information, for example, is typically not seen as giving a business a competitive edge, meaning security concerns may be less relevant here too.

But from what I’ve heard today, it sounds like the cloud trend will go a lot further than this. At some point in the future, perhaps all reference data will be stored in the cloud. The forecast is certainly cloudy.