*INVESTMENT INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT FOR SCALE*
Nidhi Chappell, Vice President & General Manager of Azure AI Infrastructure, Microsoft
The explosion of data is changing everything around us. And building the right infrastructure to harness that data is central to how the next chapter of investment management is unfolding.
As we look to the future of the industry, the convergence of public and private markets, the related evolution of whole portfolio management, and the growing data needs of institutional and wealth management clients are all reshaping the landscape. Enterprise infrastructure must be designed to support these changes, enabling investors to make informed decisions based on comprehensive analytics and insights—to optimize their portfolios and manage risk; and to achieve their investment objectives with greater precision and efficiency.
INNOVATIONS
Service-oriented architectureThe Aladdin platform’s expanded high-quality API surface will build on our broad suite of powerful API offerings. We’re leveraging the recent rollout of OAuth 2.0 as our new API auth protocol, allowing users to implement scalable and flexible access controls for Aladdin Studio powered applications. And we’re launching external events, further opening Aladdin and enabling new asynchronous workflows.
Cloud-native architectureThe Aladdin platform offers a seamless pathway for transitioning Aladdin applications into containers. In addition to containers, we’re providing a comprehensive suite of tools (e.g., Redis Caching) to empower teams to develop highly scalable applications with cloud-native behaviors. This approach enhances both elasticity and modularity.
We leverage containers and auto-scaling features to reenvision our unit of compute from fixed-capacity virtual machines to dynamic enterprise resource pools that can scale based on demand.
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of global CEOs do not believe their business will be viable in a decade without transformation.*
*Source: PwC’s 2025 Global CEO Survey
At the same time, with accelerated AI transformation, the infrastructure will also need to incorporate AI-driven analytics and decision-making tools to enhance the investment process. This includes using AI to fill gaps in private markets data, automate routine tasks, and provide predictive analytics that help investors stay ahead of market trends.
As institutional investors tackle more complexity—with multi-asset portfolios, new investment products, changing regulations, and evolving risk—the ability to flex will be key to growth. And the foundation lies in leveraging a platform with an infrastructure that will grow with them. Meanwhile, scale—married with significant operational resiliency—will be required to effectively manage those journeys.
Scale, however, comes in many forms and with many questions: How much data can you consume in real time? How quickly can you optimize and rebalance your portfolios? How quickly can you run your compliance rules, or respond to available liquidity? How about the ability to write your own investment automation rules and run them on a scalable platform?
To answer these questions, the infrastructure must be built to handle the increasing volume and complexity of data, ensuring that it is accurate, timely, and accessible. Moving to the cloud is a significant element here. (Migration comes with its own considerations, from integrating legacy systems and cost management to data security and compliance risks.) Leveraging a cloud-based platform allows organizations to tap into a robust range of capabilities—not only in terms of myriad services (and microservices), but also in the scale and amount of compute power available in the cloud. The key is ensuring that architectures that are, in many ways, brittle and monolithic, are reimagined in a cloud-native way—where they can flex and adapt to where compute needs are.
As companies adapt their approach, multi-cloud strategies that enhance interoperability—allowing firms to integrate diverse systems and applications seamlessly—are becoming increasingly essential.
Meanwhile, a service-based architecture is key for an open platform that can enable core applications through APIs. This not only gives users access to the platform’s data, but also the ability to operate on top of it and bring in their own data. Which, in turn, scales the platform and allows clients to ultimately unlock more value in an agile way.
Furthermore, to support and leverage the evolving digital landscape, future investment management platforms will be embedded more deeply into the blockchain ecosystem (built on top of a public blockchain). By enabling on-chain integration, platforms can support tokenized funds, leveraging the security and scalability of public blockchains to facilitate faster and more cost-effective transactions, while maintaining underlying robustness.
As the landscape continues to evolve, the infrastructure must be built to support the shifts in capital markets that necessitate a whole portfolio approach and address changing client needs. By leveraging cloud-native architectures, multi-cloud optionality, AI-driven analytics, native blockchain capabilities, and a client-centric design—platforms like Aladdin can lead the way in transforming the future of investment management and delivering superior outcomes for investors.
