Case Study
Dec 16, 2024
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Overview
Data is at the core of every investment decision within a hedge fund. Each portfolio manager comes with their preferred methods for preparing, viewing, and analyzing data. Given the uniqueness of each team, it is vital to have a robust data platform that can streamline and accelerate their investment idea generation and decision-making to seize the best possible positions at the best possible times. This extends beyond portfolio management to other business units that leverage data constantly to deliver complex, scalable solutions.
Challenge
As one of the top multi-strategy hedge funds, our client understood these needs well. However, scaling data operations to meet the demands of a rapidly growing business presented significant challenges:
Disparate Datasets: Managing and integrating data from thousands of SQL server tables, SFTP servers, and Amazon S3 from major data providers in the financial services industry.
Time-Consuming Processes: Identifying, accessing, preparing, and analyzing data took weeks, leading to missed opportunities for alpha generation.
Complex Data Management: Ensuring data quality, consistency, and availability across various sources and formats.
Solution
OutcomeCatalyst leveraged its expertise in building enterprise-grade, scalable data lakehouses, alongside rigorous DevOps and disaster recovery methodologies, to address these challenges. We implemented our solutions using Azure as the cloud provider and Databricks as the lakehouse platform.
Within six months, we accomplished the following:
Automated Data Ingestion: Built robust data pipelines connecting disparate sources, automating the delivery of datasets.
Data Quality Assurance: Developed custom tooling to ensure data integrity by validating vendor-provided datasets against what was actually delivered.
DevOps and Orchestration: Integrated DevOps practices and orchestration from data ingestion to transformation, ensuring seamless data flow to diverse user sets ranging from fund partners to technical quants.
Backup and Disaster Recovery: Created proprietary backup and restore tools to guarantee continuity within 30 minutes or less in case of data corruption or system failures.
Results
OutcomeCatalyst successfully built an enterprise-grade data lakehouse within six months, significantly enhancing the firms data capabilities. Our managed services ensured daily operational support, maintaining speed and continuous operations. This transformation allowed the hedge fund to:
Accelerate Investment Idea Generation: Enabled teams to spend more time on analyzing investment theses and less time preparing data, reducing the time to validate an investment idea from weeks to days.
Ensure Scalability: Confidently scale data operations in line with business growth and new investment strategies.