Episode 194: ITRS Group’s Warren on Capacity Planning

This week, Guy Warren, CEO of ITRS Group, joins Wei-Shen on the podcast. They discuss the importance of capacity planning and some of the capacity issues clients have been facing as a result of higher volatility. He also sheds light on what the future will look like for application development in a crowded market.  3:00 - Off the recent earnings season, Wei-Shen and Tony discuss how the likes of Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, and StateStreet are now portraying themselves more as technology companies.  https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/7531841/morgan-stanleys-katherine-wetmur-on-the-banks-tech-investment-covid-19-response https://www.waterstechnology.com/operations/7538871/blackrock-onboards-8-aladdin-clients-remotely 14:30 - Guy joins the podcast, and gives an overview of ITRS Group and capacity planning as a whole.   18:40 - He talks about the acquisition of Sumerian in 2018 and previous thoughts of building a capacity planning tool  https://www.waterstechnology.com/organization-management/alliances-mergers-acquisitions/3669186/itrs-buys-capacity-management-firm-sumerian 23:30 – Then, they talk about the capacity challenges firms are facing at this time. He says that most companies are unaware their systems have a throughput limit.   27:30 – Guy explains how capacity thresholds are set, monitored, and at what point ITRS alerts their customers.    30:00 - How are capacity challenges addressed? Guy discusses elastic applications.   33:00 - What does the future look like for application development? What happens with existing applications?   35:30 - He talks about the ITRS capacity planner and how take-up has been as a result of Covid-19. Guy explains how people want to “Try before they buy.”   37:00 - Where have investment firms found their infrastructure inadequate to meet current trading volumes and demands?  40:00 - What are some new features ITRS is working on for the tool? Guy wraps up talking about cloud cost optimization.