Top 5 Financial Website and App Challenges Addressed by a Cloud-Based Market Data Solution
First Published Thursday, 23rd February 2012 02:30 pm from Xand : John Neff
The opinions expressed by this blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone, this does not reflect the opinion of Automated Trader or any employee thereof. Automated Trader is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by this article.
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alt="" width="200" height="200" />The recent economic crisis
and subsequent market downturn has spurred a significant number
of retail investors to take a more active, hands-on approach to
managing their investments. These investors are looking for new
self-service financial resources to learn about the markets and
to develop their own investing strategies.
This trend is a boon for financial website and
application developers targeting retail investors. Financial
websites and applications serving this market are in high demand,
and there are a number of directions for developers to take,
including:
- Financial news
sites
- Research portals
- Investor education
- Trading
applications
- Portfolio simulators
- Interactive games
- Social
investing
To engage investors and
increase traffic and conversions, financial websites and
applications need to provide unique tools powered by actionable
market data. However, getting market data integrated into
applications has typically been a very resource-intensive process
that distracts developers from adding value on the front
end.
Introducing the market data
cloud
The availability of
market data over the cloud is changing the way financial website
developers approach market data integrations. Cloud technology
enables developers to bypass the sizeable investments in
infrastructure, hardware, software, and maintenance that are
typically associated with traditional datafeeds. A cloud-based
market data solution helps firms gain economies of scale, lower
costs, and increase agility.
Below are five
financial website and application challenges that are addressed
by the adoption of a cloud-based data management
solution.
Financial website and app challenge
#1
Avoiding getting bogged down in
data infrastructure and
management
For
developers who need to integrate market data into a financial
website or application, it's easy to get sidetracked by data
infrastructure projects. What often starts out as a
straightforward project can turn into something very complex,
especially as new features and functionality requiring new data
sets are added.
The market data cloud enables
developers to leave the integration headaches behind with web
service APIs that can be deployed in virtually any development
environment. The market data cloud provides a direct path to
financial applications, allowing firms to focus on features and
functionality rather than market data infrastructure.
Financial website and app
challenge #2
Staying agile and keeping
within budget
Launching a new financial website or application is an
expensive proposition, particularly if the project requires the
integration of market data. Developers can significantly reduce
risk and increase agility by taking advantage of the on-demand
pricing structure of a cloud-based market data
solution.
On-demand pricing means that firms
pay for market data based on usage rather than large payments up
front. Costs are determined by number of calls to the database,
which allows scaled pricing plans that grow alongside a product's
user base.
Financial website and app
challenge #3
Quickly scaling up to meet the
needs of an expanding user
base
Your app is a
smash hit-your user base is doubling every week and buzz is
building. Excellent! But can your infrastructure scale to handle
such explosive growth? The answer is most likely no.
A cloud-based market data solution enables developers to
set aside worries about scaling and instead focus on enhancing
the user experience. The market data cloud provides elasticity
not found with internal data management systems, accommodating
growth with an unlimited capacity that enables you to scale from
one to one million users without a hiccup.
Financial website and app
challenge #4
Launching applications and gaining
mindshare ahead of the competition
The competitive
environment for financial websites and applications is red hot.
Getting your application to market first can prove to be a
significant factor in generating buzz and gaining
mindshare.
By adopting a cloud-based market
data solution with web-friendly APIs that deliver market data
directly to applications, developers can bypass infrastructure
and maintenance complexities and get a jump on the competition by
getting products to market first.
Financial website and app
challenge
#5
Increasing stickiness and differentiating
from competitors
Today's
increasingly savvy retail investors demand access to a wider
swath of market information than ever before. They want real-time
market data whenever possible, and are broadening their horizons
to investigate fixed income, commodities, options, forex, and
more. If your financial application isn't sticky, delivering the
exact data they want, they'll seek out other options that
do.
The market data cloud provides developers
with instant access to a wide range of global real-time market
data across all financial instruments. This enables developers to
increase stickiness, quickly "go global" and differentiate from
the competition by providing the breaking information that
investors expect within their financial application. Adding new
capabilities is straightforward, requiring just a few lines of
code to get up and running.
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