Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. We've got
Speaker 1: the details on a partnership between NASDAC and Amazon Web Services.
Speaker 1: It's all about building out the next gen cloud enabled
Speaker 1: infrastructure for the world's capital markets. Cloud is everywhere, It
Speaker 1: certainly is. Ruba Borno is Global Channel chief for a WS,
Speaker 1: also known as Amazon Web Services. Ruba joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from North Carolina. Lauren Dillard is Executive vice
Speaker 1: president of Investment Intelligence at NASDAC. Lauren joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Austin, Texas. Great to have you both
Speaker 1: with us, Lauren, I want to start with you, uh
Speaker 1: and just understand why the partnership is is why this
Speaker 1: is the right partnership for NASDAC, NASDAC and AWS UM. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you Tim for having for having us both and
Speaker 1: we're excited to talk about this. Look at NAZAC, we've
Speaker 1: had a long cloud journey. Actually, our vision is that
Speaker 1: the global capital markets and where we sit UM will
Speaker 1: be enabled and belong in the cloud. I think everything
Speaker 1: you're seeing in the markets today UM just reinforce that
Speaker 1: that they have to be dynamic, they have to be
Speaker 1: future focused, they have to be innovative. New retail brokers
Speaker 1: have to be able to set up shop quickly and frankly,
Speaker 1: you know, as the technology provider, we have long had many,
Speaker 1: many kind of cloud native products on the back of Amazon,
Speaker 1: and this partnership just really solidifies taking the markets themselves
Speaker 1: into the future. We can talk about the details that
Speaker 1: we have. We have actually a lot of the surrounding
Speaker 1: systems already in the cloud because we've been on this
Speaker 1: journey with with Amazon for for over a decade now,
Speaker 1: but truly moving the matching engine, the actual matching engine
Speaker 1: in the markets. The cloud is is what we're endeavoring
Speaker 1: to do across the markets and APEX run and we're
Speaker 1: we're delighted with the partnership. We have a come on
Speaker 1: in on the conversation. So you know, you guys work
Speaker 1: with a lot of companies that depend on you for
Speaker 1: various cloud services. We know that aws IS is massive. Um,
Speaker 1: when you approach a project like this, how do you
Speaker 1: think about it? Uh, and and listen to the client
Speaker 1: in terms of what they're needing, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to financial markets. Right, this is our bread and butter
Speaker 1: and you've got to make sure that they're running smoothly.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Carol, Tim for having me and
Speaker 1: Lauren here. And we're really excited about the partnerships. And
Speaker 1: one of the greatest things about AWS is that we
Speaker 1: do everything with a foundation built on leadership principles. And
Speaker 1: one of our our top leadership principles actually customer obsession
Speaker 1: and what that means is actually working backwards from the customer.
Speaker 1: Now with NASDAC, they are both a customer and a partner.
Speaker 1: And as Lauren mentioned, this has been a ten year relationship,
Speaker 1: so nearly a decade going back, um, we had our NAZAC.
Speaker 1: We had NAZAC CEO Adina Freedman on stage at our
Speaker 1: annual conference Reinvent this past November to talk about this, uh,
Speaker 1: this multi year partnership. But if I go back to
Speaker 1: even when Nezac first moved from an on premises data
Speaker 1: warehouse to an a w S data warehouse to increased
Speaker 1: scale and performance and lower operational costs, that was really
Speaker 1: the start of it. And then that cluster continued to
Speaker 1: grow as NAZBAT grew and they continued to consume more
Speaker 1: and more of a WS services, so as we think
Speaker 1: about the next phase of the partnership when NAZBAC will
Speaker 1: move all of its operations to a WUS, and Lauren
Speaker 1: mentioned moving the matching engine, which is the technology that
Speaker 1: powers then stac stocket change. It's really incredible because we're
Speaker 1: looking at not just what it gives them, but also
Speaker 1: gives their end customers as well. So it gives them
Speaker 1: and other market infrastructure operators and market participants the ability
Speaker 1: to confidantly move their trading systems to the cloud. It's
Speaker 1: really the first of its kind of collaboration that we've
Speaker 1: had designed to meet the latency, fairness, and regulatory requirements
Speaker 1: of the world's most critical markets. And what we're excited
Speaker 1: about is that it helps deepen the capabilities that Nasdaq
Speaker 1: has and anti financial crime data and analytics and market
Speaker 1: infrastructure software solutions for their clients helps them deliver it
Speaker 1: at Lauren, I gotta bring you back because the last
Speaker 1: year and a half or so, certainly during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: right we were all watching the rise of the retail
Speaker 1: investor and meme stocks and alternate trading platforms. How do
Speaker 1: you guys think about what your platform needs to be,
Speaker 1: especially as how we trade and the financial markets in
Speaker 1: a big way continue to evolve and and kind of
Speaker 1: test if you will, UM, the establishment, which you guys
Speaker 1: are a part of. Even though you're certainly younger than
Speaker 1: the New York Stock Exchange, Um, you're considered part of
Speaker 1: the establishment. And people are, especially a younger generation, a
Speaker 1: younger retail investor, are looking for different ways to be
Speaker 1: involved in the market. Well, let me start with just
Speaker 1: fundamentally the markets. The security of the markets, the resiliency,
Speaker 1: the reliability, I mean, those are all core too, frankly
Speaker 1: allowing market participants and and as Ruba said, um we
Speaker 1: at NAZAC our purpose is fundamentally inclusive capital, driving inclusive capital.
Speaker 1: So we want more market participants. That's that's fund and
Speaker 1: the lead the way we think about it. So if
Speaker 1: you kind of tie this back to our cloud discussion,
Speaker 1: that resiliency, that security, that innovation, that scalability. UM is
Speaker 1: a big reason why this partnership is very important to
Speaker 1: us as we look forward in scale. And you are
Speaker 1: exactly right if you think about the market itself from
Speaker 1: pre pandemic to now, this is a good fact. Prior
Speaker 1: to two thousand nineteen, the average message count for options
Speaker 1: was about fifteen billion messages and now the new normal
Speaker 1: for options fifty five billion messages. So there is an
Speaker 1: enormous amount of activity on the markets and that market
Speaker 1: resiliency is so critical to us, and we and NAZAC
Speaker 1: take great pride in that. And I should mention in Ruba.
Speaker 1: Ruba touched on this as as you did as well.
Speaker 1: We run our NAZAC market, but we actually also power
Speaker 1: over a hundred and thirty other market infrastructure clients. So
Speaker 1: when you think about how important this this cloud journey
Speaker 1: is for us, it's not just for our own markets,
Speaker 1: which is obviously critical and those those numbers that I
Speaker 1: just said are staggering, but it's also spanning all of
Speaker 1: the exchanges and banks and clearing houses and and other
Speaker 1: other technology platforms that we provide um and that rely
Speaker 1: on us frankly for clearing and trading and settlement and surveillance.
Speaker 1: So we are a technology provider for and so this
Speaker 1: cloud journey really shows the other markets that we can
Speaker 1: endeavor on this journey as well. Okay, Reybody, I want
Speaker 1: to get a little nitty gritty here with what exactly
Speaker 1: AWS is doing for for NASDAC. Here are we talking
Speaker 1: fully cloud like all off premise or is there stuff
Speaker 1: on the edge that helps make that transition to the
Speaker 1: cloud thanks to him. It's actually both. So what we're
Speaker 1: really excited about here is that cord to NASDAK move
Speaker 1: to a WS will be something we call a WS outposts,
Speaker 1: which extends the AWS Infrastructure Services, APIs and tools to
Speaker 1: virtually any data center, co location space or on premises facility.
Speaker 1: So we're really excited about that, and it does provide
Speaker 1: all of those services um and we're starting in a
Speaker 1: phased approach. So actually we began with one of the
Speaker 1: markets in January of this year, and so we'll be
Speaker 1: following a phased approach to to continue that expansion. All right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back and continue the conversation with ruber Borno,
Speaker 1: she's Global Channel chief at Amazon Web Services on the
Speaker 1: phone in North Carolina. And Lauren Dillard, Executive vice president
Speaker 1: of Investment Intelligence at NASDAK, on the phone from Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1: Our guest with us ruble Borno, she is Global channel
Speaker 1: chief over at Amazon Web Services. She's with us on
Speaker 1: the phone from North Carolina. Also with us, Lauren Dillard,
Speaker 1: Executive VP of Investment Intelligence on at NASDAK on the
Speaker 1: phone from Austin, Texas. They've been talking about their partnership
Speaker 1: between the two building out the next gen cloud enabled
Speaker 1: infrastructure for capital markets, the global capital markets. Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, UM hard to ignore with
Speaker 1: every leader that we have here on at Bloomberg to
Speaker 1: talk about some of the headlines the in Ukraine because
Speaker 1: of the Russian invasion, volatility in the financial markets. UM,
Speaker 1: there's so many questions about the global economic and market
Speaker 1: outlook and whether it's really time to rethink the second
Speaker 1: half of the year. And I'm curious how you each
Speaker 1: see it. And Lauren, let me start with you. Because
Speaker 1: there's been so much volatility in the markets. What are
Speaker 1: some of the conversations that you guys are having at
Speaker 1: NASDAC about maybe what what what's to come here? In Well?
Speaker 1: I mean, it is our role and responsibility to have
Speaker 1: resilient markets UM, to frankly make sure that they can
Speaker 1: handle the peaks of of traffic and latency, which we
Speaker 1: talked about UM, and and we don't see any of
Speaker 1: that changing. UM. We continue to have records of message traffic.
Speaker 1: So I would say from a just market resiliency perspective.
Speaker 1: We're very proud of being able to support the levels frankly,
Speaker 1: that we've seen to date around you know, the rest
Speaker 1: of the capital markets. You know, we sit in a
Speaker 1: really unique place in the eCos of them, so we
Speaker 1: set in between asset managers and investors and corporates, and frankly,
Speaker 1: a lot of the needs around the clients we serve
Speaker 1: are unchanged there. They of course are changed from pressure,
Speaker 1: but you know, they still need to do business, they
Speaker 1: still need to make investments, they still need to do
Speaker 1: manager research, which is something that we provide on our technology,
Speaker 1: our corporate listed clients. They'll need to understand their investors,
Speaker 1: and there's obviously a a push for more E s
Speaker 1: D disclosures, So all of kind of those business matters continue.
Speaker 1: We have a healthy pipeline of I P O s
Speaker 1: UM and it remains strong. But because of the market volatility,
Speaker 1: we could see some of those getting pushed out UM,
Speaker 1: so that we see a little bit of what I
Speaker 1: would call an adjustment. But the pipeline has been extraordinarily
Speaker 1: strong to start and you don't see any of that
Speaker 1: at this point. The pipeline backing off at this point, Lauren,
Speaker 1: I mean you've seen some quality deals take place despite
Speaker 1: what you've seen with some of the pullback. But um,
Speaker 1: and there's still a lot of optimism and frankly, you
Speaker 1: know accessing the public markets, UM. But you know windows
Speaker 1: open and closed, and so the team that focuses on that,
Speaker 1: you know, stays with that pipeline. So RU, But let
Speaker 1: me bring you in this kind of same thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: like we said, we asked all of our leaders who
Speaker 1: are coming on UM about the headlines. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that we are realizing or that we've
Speaker 1: seen certainly, is that in this war, it's certainly a
Speaker 1: ground war and military war, but it's also a cyber war.
Speaker 1: And we have talked so much about cybersecurity. How are
Speaker 1: you guys at Amazon Web Services? Are you seeing any
Speaker 1: kind of breaches or increased act activity because of our
Speaker 1: following this war in Ukraine. It's such a good question. Um.
Speaker 1: While we're seeing an increasing activity of malicious state actors,
Speaker 1: were also just being higher operational tempo by other malicious actors.
Speaker 1: And we've seen several situations where malware has specifically targeted charities,
Speaker 1: NGOs and other aid organizations just to spread confuse, Usian
Speaker 1: and cause disruption. UM. So this is an area where
Speaker 1: we are focused. We're continuing to work hard to protect
Speaker 1: UH these customers and we're going to continue to work
Speaker 1: closely with them UM as they carry out their much
Speaker 1: needed work to help those that are impacted by this
Speaker 1: terrible conflict. But that's absolutely a huge focus of ours
Speaker 1: is UH cybersecurity and supporting our customers. There have to
Speaker 1: follow up. Do you know any indication of where kind
Speaker 1: of the bad actors are coming from? At this day,
Speaker 1: we haven't shared anything publicly on that, but it's this
Speaker 1: is something that's just activities increasing. It could be coming
Speaker 1: from anywhere. So Ruba, what would you say to people
Speaker 1: listening right now who need to keep their own networks
Speaker 1: safe and what's the right way to do this in
Speaker 1: this environment? That's thank you, sim So. Our teams are
Speaker 1: continually learning from the intelligence that we collect, and I
Speaker 1: think that what we're working on with our customers is
Speaker 1: work with your account manager, security specialist, solution architects, and
Speaker 1: other technical professionals to constantly assess the threat landscape that
Speaker 1: you have, the threat perimeter that you have, and ensure
Speaker 1: that you are secure. But we are ready to support
Speaker 1: our customers there, but it's it's really a constant game.
Speaker 1: The threat landscape is constantly increasing, UM, and the number
Speaker 1: of threat actors is constantly increasing as well. So it
Speaker 1: is diligence that isn't a destination. You will never have
Speaker 1: it solved at the end, but it is constant work UM.
Speaker 1: And so I would say, just reach out and we're
Speaker 1: ready to help. I also am curious for both of
Speaker 1: you in terms of employees you might have overseas, whether
Speaker 1: it's Russia or Ukraine. I mean, one of the things
Speaker 1: that has come out about this and unfortunately, UM it's
Speaker 1: come out because it took a war for us to understand.
Speaker 1: You know, how much companies reply rely on I t
Speaker 1: out of Ukraine, UM, and how important it is um, Lauren,
Speaker 1: any thoughts on that, I would just I would just
Speaker 1: say that we we obviously run markets in in across Europe,
Speaker 1: specifically the Nordics and the Baltics, so UM, we we
Speaker 1: are very focused, as as our other companies on you know,
Speaker 1: the safety of our employees obviously, the resiliency of our
Speaker 1: markets UM and and of course the outpouring of our
Speaker 1: our employees families. UM. And we are focused of course
Speaker 1: on the humanitarian release and efforts. UM. So you know,
Speaker 1: I think we like every company that have anyone nearby
Speaker 1: or focused on our employees there and and of course
Speaker 1: again since we run the markets in the Baltics and
Speaker 1: then Ordics, extremely focused on resiliency. Yeah, but what about
Speaker 1: you when it comes to Amazon Web Services. We've done
Speaker 1: a lot of reporting on tech companies that have had
Speaker 1: to get employees out of Ukraine. But um, what's the
Speaker 1: presence right now in Russia, Ukraine, UH, in Belarus and
Speaker 1: and what are you doing in those areas right now?
Speaker 1: So we don't have a local presence right now, So
Speaker 1: it's just about for us to without a local presence
Speaker 1: to provide direct support and award zone. But we are
Speaker 1: focused on the humanitarian aspects of this. So it's donations.
Speaker 1: Are employees want to donate, so we're also matching their donations. UM,
Speaker 1: we're helping our customers as well with donation buttons on
Speaker 1: charitable organizations in the whole pages of our websites. And
Speaker 1: then in addition to that, UM, focusing on our people.
Speaker 1: So not only are we supporting our team members, UH.
Speaker 1: For example, team members in adjacent countries like Poland, we've
Speaker 1: given them additional time off to take care of themselves
Speaker 1: and their families. But this is something where we're going
Speaker 1: to have to respond to the moment and meet our
Speaker 1: employees where they are, so as we hear feedback on
Speaker 1: what they need, we will meet them in that moment. Well,
Speaker 1: our thanks to both of you, and good luck with
Speaker 1: the ongoing partnership that you've got. Ruba Borno, Global Channel
Speaker 1: chief at Amazon Web Services, on the phone from North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Lauren Dillard, Executive EP of Investment Intelligence over at NASDAC,
Speaker 1: on the phone from Austin, Texas. But we really appreciate
Speaker 1: them also, uh their frankness about what's going on in
Speaker 1: terms of the war in Ukraine.