Integral won Best in Cloud at the 2021 Markets Choice Awards.
Markets Media caught up with Vikas Srivastava, Chief Revenue Officer at Integral, to learn more.
Please describe what the Integral's cloud offering is all about -- what are the primary capabilities and how does it differentiate in a competitive landscape?
Vikas Srivastava, Integral
The need for digitization and automation has led to many institutions sharpening their focus on cloud technology within capital markets. There is a simple explanation for this - the operational efficiencies, scalability, and cost savings of cloud simply cannot be accommodated by other technologies.
Many asset classes are ideally suited to cloud technology and are moving to this environment at pace. FX is case in point and this is where Integral comes in.
Integral is an FX technology provider that serves the full spectrum of capital market participants. Our goal is to help clients outperform the competition using the most innovative solutions for workflow management and advanced execution. We fulfill this by providing a full suite of the liquidity access, market-making, risk management, and data science capabilities required to run a global, multi-level and competitive eFX operation.
Having operated technology in a native cloud environment since inception, we can give clients full control over every aspect of their FX workflow. This is a unique proposition that allows them to retain a high degree of differentiation, coupled with complete workflow automation, to optimally serve clients. Our clients span the institutional market, so we are in a unique position to gather feedback and quickly deploy enhancements that allow for a more complete, comprehensive stack along with high-performance functionality.
What is Integral's primary customer base for the cloud? What is the state of their adoption of cloud, and how is this evolving?
Integral is privileged to serve over 200 banks, brokerages, hedge funds, and asset managers globally.
We made the decision to employ cloud technology over two decades ago. Since then, the adoption of cloud has gone from strength-to-strength as its benefits have become more widely known.
Clients find our native-cloud environment an exciting proposition, as it allows them to infinitely configure their FX workflows in an extremely efficient and differentiated way. From how they access and execute liquidity; to creating, configuring and distributing tailored prices; or how they choose to manage risk and assess execution with counterparties.
We recently conducted a survey with FX heads of desk and senior FX managers around the world which indicated 28% of respondents will be operating their FX technology completely in the cloud within the next five years compared to the current figure of 2%. Further, an additional 41% will be using some combination of cloud and on-premise technology compared to 24% at present. This shows a tectonic shift in the acceptance and adoption of cloud within the industry.
What does the future hold for Integral's cloud offering?
The levels of adoption and clear signals from the market demonstrate that cloud is the future for FX trading technology.
Our strong cloud presence allows Integral to listen to clients and quickly develop or deploy innovative solutions in a fraction of the time and at significantly lower cost to them.
Integral finds ways to provide a seamless overall workflow in whichever way our clients use our technology – whether it be just some of the components, or the entire stack. Our role is to be a true partner to our clients, provide world-class service, and help them enhance their FX trading workflows in line with market needs, especially as the world moves inevitably toward cloud. This is what we are already seeing in FX and we will continue to be at the forefront of meeting market challenges and opportunities head on.
