Episode 163: Tony Amicangioli of HPR on Cloud, Race to Zero

Tony Amicangioli, founder and CEO of HPR, formerly known as Hyannis Port Research, joins the podcast to chat about his career. Amicangioli has had an interesting ride in the world of technology. A graduate of MIT, he was at BBN Technologies, one of the leading firms behind the development of the internet. Switches, gateways, routers and mobile networks—he was in the vanguard for those, as well. He created his own companies—Zetari and Hyannis Port Research—and worked at cutting-edge tech firms like Juniper Networks and Lime Brokerage. For the podcast, he talks about the lessons that he’s learned when it comes to building a company. We also talk about how the so-called “Race to Zero” conversation has changed. Additionally, we look at the arms race for cloud supremacy unfolding between Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and what that might mean for capital markets firms over the next decade. To that last point, this outtake was very interesting—and it’s something that banks that are fully embracing the public cloud need to consider: “Just like it was with mainframes and mini-computers, when they used to build those large computers that took up half the floor of a building … nobody ever thought we’d see this little desktop [computer at people’s desks] that would just obliterate that market. … I think there’s a very similar effect coming in cloud computing where people often confuse technology with how they deliver it. … The pendulum will swing back and there will be private clouds—that’s a prediction I make. The technology package has nothing to do with the ability to deliver that technology locally. So for the banks, they need to be really cognizant of this because if I’m right … there will be a downsized version [of what happened] with the desktop computer.” And Tony is putting his money where his mouth is, as they say: “That private cloud, as it relates to the latency-centric aspects of technology providers in the financial space, this is my second bite at that apple [as it relates to the cloud explosion of] 2000, and I am 100% committed to building out what would be tantamount to a private—we’ll call it, or a financial services-centric—cloud-based infrastructure.”