A global financial institution finds the security and performance it needs to connect to a public cloud

Securities traders continually search for insights on emerging opportunities. Institutional investors, eager to forecast trends, monitor vital market indicators. Pension fund managers mitigate risk with analysis and reporting tools. To do this, these financial professionals rely on access to accurate, real-time data.

A well-known financial services company saw an opportunity to meet the demand for accurate and timely data. Several years ago, they added a service enabling other financial professionals to use their proprietary investment and risk management platform, which was hosted from the company’s own data center servers. The new offering took off quickly — so quickly that the firm’s internally managed MPLS network did not have the bandwidth or ease of scalability required to continue providing fast, reliable access to the popular platform.

The firm knew it needed to find an alternate network solution — immediately. They needed a technology partner who could guide them to the right solution and then rapidly implement it. They turned to Spectrum Business: a partner who, over the course of several years, had shown they possessed the needed expertise and agility to get things done quickly. Spectrum Business proved once again they have what it takes to handle these challenges — and whatever challenges may come next.

The cloud becomes a contender

When account manager Daryl Caprio mentioned Spectrum Business had been working with another large financial institution to establish high-capacity connectivity to a public cloud, the firm took notice. To date, the company had been resistant to migrating to the cloud, preferring to keep all its data within the confines of its own “walled garden,” where the IT team could personally manage data security and privacy. However, once the firm heard how similar companies had successfully leveraged a secure connection to the cloud, their viewpoint shifted.

Caprio introduced the firm to Spectrum Business Cloud Connect, a service providing secure, fiber connectivity to cloud service providers (CSPs) such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. While the company was receptive to using the service, they needed to ensure it would meet their security and performance requirements.

To address the firm’s security concerns, Caprio explained how Cloud Connect would leverage the private Spectrum Business fiber Ethernet network to provide secure and reliable access from the company’s servers to AWS, their chosen CSP. As far as performance requirements, the company saw the Spectrum Business service-level agreement (SLA) as an important benefit. The SLA provides performance assurance for service availability, service restoration, latency, jitter and packet/frame loss.

These assurances gave the company’s engineers confidence that Cloud Connect would meet their needs — on paper. They still needed to confirm that their investment platform would perform optimally when running on their CSP’s platform. The engineers wanted Caprio to get Cloud Connect ready for a test.

“I told them, ‘Give us the thumbs up, and we’ll provide high-capacity connectivity to your CSP within 30 days,’” says Caprio. And with skillful planning and collaboration, Caprio delivered on his promise. 5 Gbps fiber connectivity was established from the company’s four data centers to AWS.

Scalability and a partnership ready for what’s next

The test was a success, delivering the speed, security and reliability the firm required. Now, the firm is looking towards moving some of its other applications to the cloud. The scalability of Spectrum Business connectivity solutions will allow them to easily double their 5 Gbps circuits to 10 Gbps.

The firm knows they can count on Spectrum Business to step up to the plate to help them reach their goals. “We’ve spent a lot of effort building a relationship with them and are now considered a trusted advisor,” says Caprio. “We’re ready to help them tackle whatever comes their way next.”

Learn more about how Cloud Connect can help you connect securely to the cloud.