Agile security for asset management
22.12.2021 – Airlock Reference AssetMetrix
Digitalization, standardization, automation: these topics are currently important drivers in the financial industry. This is especially true for fund and private equity managers who are increasingly relying on digital setups. A leading partner here is AssetMetrix – and therefore also Airlock.
Interestingly, digitalization is already well advanced in small transactions and private client business. The situation is different in the private equity sector. Here, low-tech has dominated for a long time and Excel spreadsheets are still a popular tool for managing large numbers. But this is changing – thanks in part to AssetMetrix, an outsourcing partner for private capital investors.
Building digital foundations for portfolio management
AssetMetrix is Europe’s leading next-generation asset servicer, with impressive growth figures in recent years. The first reason for this is that asset management is under high margin and consolidation pressure, which is why private equity providers are increasingly investing in the digital foundations of their portfolio management. And the second reason: The digitization of private equity companies requires not only great expertise, but also high agility and short development cycles. In these respects, AssetMetrix is absolutely convincing, which is why more and more fund managers are counting on the services of the company – from family offices, insurance companies, and pension funds to large institutional investors such as BNP Paribas. The advantages of digitized portfolio management are clear – in the analysis of performance figures, in reporting, and in interaction with demanding clients. In addition, internal workflows can be significantly optimized, and a specialized outsourcing partner guarantees that all processes always comply with regulatory requirements.
Better information thanks to better IT
In a nutshell, good information is becoming increasingly important in the financial world. And with it, good IT. But the better the information, the more sensitive it is, especially in private equity. Because when venture investors receive relevant financial figures from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists transfer large sums of money, both the communication and the interfaces should be completely secure. That’s why AssetMetrix relies on microservices – and when it comes to security, on the Airlock Microgateway.
There are many arguments in favor of a modern architecture with microservices – such as fast scaling, standardized interfaces¹, and the decoupling of individual services. These arguments also convinced AssetMetrix, as the company’s Solution Architect, Rui Santos, explains:
“Our customers manage hundreds of pieces of corporate data and communicate with thousands of contacts every day – and they do so with completely different IT systems. That’s why we chose an agile IT infrastructure, running microservices as containers in an OpenShift platform.”
“In the evaluation, we were particularly convinced by the maturity of the Airlock Microgateway.”
Security has become agile – thanks to microgateways
Operating flexibly in a heterogeneous environment is no problem for the Munich-based company, thanks to microservices. But it’s not just software development that’s highly agile at AssetMetrix, IT security is too – thanks to the Airlock Microgateway by Ergon. For instance, the Airlock Microgateway was designed specifically for use in container environments and helps DevOps engineers reliably protect their applications.
Besides the general benefits of microservices, the asset servicer has specific reasons why it chose the Airlock solution. “In the evaluation, we were particularly convinced by the maturity of the Airlock Microgateway,” says Rui Santos. “Maturity for us means that the solution we were looking for meets a whole bundle of requirements, and we found that: Airlock can simply do a lot very well.” High availability is just as crucial as reliable protection against OWASP Top 10 risks and clever integration with various systems.
Implementing security efficiently – with Airlock
Another advantage: Where there are many funds, there are also many fund managers whose identities must be managed reliably. “The Airlock Microgateway offers a high-performance single sign-on here, which is a real benefit when it comes to authentication,” notes Rui Santos. “This allows users to access all services with a single sign-on and not be bothered in the least by internal complexity.”
The convenience of Airlock’s solutions has fully convinced the fintech company. Convenience, incidentally, that was also evident during the integration of the Airlock Microgateway: “Everything was very simple, smooth, and understandable,” adds Rui Santos. “This meant that my team was soon able to get back to its actual core tasks. For us, this means Airlock is not only convincing in terms of security, but also in terms of efficiency. Not the worst message to have in times of scarce and precious resources.”
About Airlock
The Airlock Secure Access Hub combines the important IT security issues of filtering and authentication into a well-coordinated overall solution that sets standards in terms of usability and services. The Secure Access Hub covers all important functions of modern IT security in this field: from a web application firewall (WAF) awarded by journalists, to a customer identity and access management system (cIAM) trusted by Swiss banks, to API security that meets the latest requirements. The Airlock IT security solution protects more than 20 million active digital identities and 30,000 back-ends from over 550 customers around the world.
For more information, visit www.airlock.com