Microsoft High-Performance Computing Capital Markets Survey

Transcription

1 Microsoft High-Performance Computing Capital Markets Survey 2008

2 Survey Methodology DATA COLLECTION DATES: May 20 through June 5, 2008 METHOD: Telephone survey SAMPLE SIZE: 103 interviews SAMPLE: 1. Senior level executives who say they either personally use or their company/business unit/department uses HPC 2. More than 80% at least somewhat responsible for addressing HPC needs at their company 3. Interviews were conducted among the following company types SIC codes: - Federal and Federally Sponsored Credit (2) - Personal Credit Institutions (7) - Short-term Business Credit (4) - Miscellaneous Business Credit (4) - Mortgage Bankers and Correspondents (12) - Loan Brokers (15) - Security Brokers and Dealers (30) - Commodity Contracts Brokers, Dealers (2) - Security and Commodity Exchanges (2) - Investment Advice (18) - Security and Commodity Service (7)

3 Executive Summary

4 Executive Summary Capital markets firms in the last 12 months have faced increased demands to run real-time market risk analysis (25 percent), middle-office risk analytics (34 percent) and portfolio-related calculations, such as rebalancing and hedging strategies (42 percent). At the same time, Wall Street firms are turning to their growing HPC resources to assist with these activities, with companies reporting a lot or some demand for HPC to handle real-time market risk analysis (51 percent), middle-office risk analytics (50 percent) and portfolio-related calculations (54 percent). While performance (27 percent) continues to be a primary purchase factor when selecting an HPC operating system, capital markets firms ranked ease of management (14 percent), ease of deployment (16 percent), and support of existing third-party applications (21 percent) of similar importance. By comparison, in a similar Microsoft HPC survey released last year, 37 percent of respondents reported performance as the most critical factor, with ease of management and other factors in the single digits. According to the survey, the most common lines of business using HPC environments today include equities (30 percent), fixed income (20 percent), commodities (13 percent), foreign exchange (13 percent), derivatives (23 percent) and algorithmic trading (18 percent).

5 Detailed Findings

6 Lines of business using HPC environment Please tell me if your firm or company currently uses an HPC environment for any of the following lines of business. % saying yes Equities 30% Derivatives 23% Fixed income 20% Algorithmic trading 18% Commodities 13% Foreign exchange 13%

7 Change in requirements over past 12 months Please tell me if your requirements have increased, decreased, or stayed the same over the course of the past 12 months for each of the following: Portfolio related calculations 5% 44% 42% Middle office functions that deal with risk analytics 5% 53% 34% Real-time market risk 5% 61% 25% Modeling and refining strategy 10% 61% 22% P&L calculations 3% 70% 20% Derivatives trading and analytics 1% 67% 20% Algorithmic trading 5% 66% 16% Decreased Stayed the same Increased

8 Demand for HPC Please tell me how much of a demand exists for HPC within each of the following areas within your firm or company a lot, some, very little, none. Portfolio related calculations 29% 15% 23% 31% P&L calculations 29% 17% 31% 22% Real-time market risk 33% 13% 27% 24% Middle office functions that deal with risk analytics 30% 18% 33% 17% Modeling and refining strategy 32% 20% 34% 12% Derivatives trading and analytics 38% 21% 24% 13% Algorithmic trading 44% 17% 22% 15% None Very little Some A lot

9 Greatest demand for HPC Now, from the same list, which area do you see the MOST demand for HPC within your firm or company? Portfolio related calculations 18% P&L calculations 16% Middle office functions that deal with risk analytics 12% Modeling and refining strategy 10% Algorithmic trading 9% Real-time market risk 8% Derivatives trading and analytics 1% Other 15%

10 Importance of system attributes I m now going to read you some attributes and after each one I would like you to tell me how important you believe each one is when selecting an operating system for an HPC application for your firm or company very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not important at all. % saying somewhat important or very important Performance Support of existing thirdparty applications Ease of management 18% 23% 28% 77% 69% 63% Ease of deployment 36% 59% Support costs 38% 56% Price Familiarity with development tools Image size 44% 42% 52% 17% 44% 50% Somewhat Very

11 Most important system attribute Now, from the same list, which attribute is the MOST important when selecting an operating system for an HPC application for your firm or company? Performance 27% Support of existing third-party applications 21% Ease of deployment 16% Ease of management 14% Price 9% Support costs 6% Familiarity with development tools 2% Image size 0% Other 6%

12 Matching limitations of HPC environment Does your firm or company limit the size of its models to match the limitations of your current HPC environment? Don't know 18% Yes 22% No 59%

13 Use of application development tools Please tell me if your firm or company uses any of the following application development tools. % saying yes Visual Studio 65% Java IDEs such as Eclipse, NetBeans, Jdeveloper, etc. 36% UNIX editors such as Vi, Emacs, etc. 26% Rational Application Developer 11% Matlab 11%

14 Operating systems used Please tell me if your firm or company currently uses any of the following operating systems on your HPC Clusters or grid. % saying yes Windows Server 86% Windows XP/Vista 80% Unix 25% Red Hat Linux 17% Solaris 16% SUSE Linux 16% Other Linux 12%

15 Primary operating system used Now, please tell me which of the following your firm or company uses as the primary operating system on your HPC Clusters or grid. If it is not on this list, please tell us the name of your primary operating system for these purposes. Windows Server 55% Windows XP/Vista 19% Red Hat Linux 9% Unix 2% Solaris 2% SUSE Linux 1% Other Linux 0% Other 7%

16 Respondent Profile # Employees % % 1,000 or more 10% Position CTO 8% CIO 11% Chief Investment Officer 3% Director of IT 38% Options Systems Analyst 1% Senior Vice President Fixed- Income Technology & Analytics Research and Economics Officer 1% 1% Other 38%