Agio, a leading managed IT and cybersecurity provider for financial services firms, published its annual 2023 Hedge Fund Managed IT Trends Report. Agio surveyed over 100 hedge fund practitioners spanning the technology, operations, cybersecurity, compliance, and finance fields for an in-depth look into how economic and employment trends are shaping their technology management practices and preferences.
Survey respondents revealed that rising inflation is changing how hedge funds manage and support their IT services. More than half of firms (55%) that currently outsource their IT management and support said they would increase outsourcing due to inflationary pressure.
The Great Resignation has had an even sharper effect on the push toward outsourcing, with 87 percent of firms looking to increase outsourcing due to high employee turnover and increased labor costs.
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Firms that currently insource their IT management also unanimously (100%) said they would look to outsource over the next two years. The primary drivers to outsource for these firms were to reduce total cost of IT ownership, scale operations cost efficiently, and offset loss of in-house talent and skill.
The report also found that those funds that will expand their existing outsourcing efforts want cloud management and support (75%). Migrating to the cloud is a significant part of the story as firms look for ways to cut costs while building better end-user support, increasing security for remote workers, and scaling IT operations efficiently. Public and multi-cloud solutions address those concerns, giving organizations improved security, resiliency, and availability while also improving cost efficiency.
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“Hedge funds are facing increasingly complex realities when it comes to managing technology in today’s environment,” said Bart McDonough, CEO and Founder of Agio. “The added uncertainty and instability driven by higher inflation and staff turnover has only heightened the complexity, especially for firms that have historically insourced their IT. It makes sense that these factors are also accelerating the shift to an outsourced model, which delivers greater stability and cost certainty.”
Other topics explored in this year’s report include firms’ desire to manage both IT and cybersecurity governance programs with a single provider, and the ability to harness artificial intelligence.
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