HKT x 2GoTrade - Multi-Cloud Fastens Daily Operation

Companies across a wide range of sectors are undergoing digitalization to support business growth and improve competitiveness. The financial services sector, which has long been Hong Kong’s forte, is a major arena for this, where companies adopt cutting-edge technology and cloud-based apps to add value to their businesses. As the various major cloud platforms lower costs and provide more services like AI-assisted tools and big data analytics, many companies in the sector have taken up their services, leading to the growth of a multi-cloud environment. 2GoTrade, a broker technology platform provider, is prepared to ride this wave by using HKT SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect to link to major public cloud service platforms, enabling faster response to customer queries and paving the way for future app development.

Efficiently Connecting to Multiple Cloud Platforms

Working on mainstream public cloud platform services is relatively straightforward, but when it comes to deployment and uploading of data onto multiple cloud platforms, companies need to spend a significant amount of time analyzing their respective connectivity settings. This is not a trivial task, as incorrect settings could hamper the progress in the cloud service deployment process, potentially delaying project deliverables and schedules.

HKT SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect service was specifically developed with these challenges in mind. The core objective of this service is to quickly and effectively connect companies to the various mainstream public cloud platforms like Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services(AWS), Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud via Megaport’s Software Defined Network (SDN) with the help of an experienced technical team. This ensures that data is seamlessly transmitted between the companies’ own IT infrastructure and the major cloud platforms via the HKT SkyExchange network facilities management centre, enabling the companies to fully harness the power of the data analytic tools developed by the cloud platforms, and make use of AI-assisted tools to develop new apps and gain insight on business opportunities.

Prompt Fulfilment of Clients’ Needs

2GoTrade, which has been providing securities companies in Hong Kong with cloud-based brokerage platform services since 2000, recognized the major advantage provided by HKT’s SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect: companies can greatly reduce the workload of their IT departments when connecting to the major cloud platform services. It followed naturally that they selected this service. Mr. Jay Law, CEO of 2GoTrade, stated that their decision to adopt this service originated from their client’s requests.

“A securities company client requested us to connect a plugin stored on Alibaba Cloud to 2GoTrade’s trading system situated at HKT’s SkyExchange network facilities management centre. In the process of resolving this issue, we realized that HKT’s SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect service provides rapid connectivity to multiple cloud service platforms, enabling us to promptly satisfy clients’ requests.”

He foresees that there will be more similar requests in the future. “Although our clients use the 2GoTrade trading system in the frontend, they would inevitably have their own apps running in the backend. The current trend is that these apps are shifting to the cloud. After we adopted HKT’s SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect, we received great help from their technical team, who provided much input and assistance at all stages of the implementation, from concept, and testing, all the way to connecting to Alibaba Cloud. This freed up our staff to focus on R&D and other tasks, relieving us from the tedious work of finding the correct cloud connectivity settings.”

Preparing for the Future

Mr Law also thinks that with the adoption of HKT’s SkyExchange Multi-Cloud FAST Connect,  2GoTrade will be better prepared should it decide to move to a public cloud platform in the future. “We might consider developing certain unregulated products and services on a  public cloud platform, as this helps to reduce hardware investment costs. This service puts the technology within our reach, and would be at our fingertips should we decide to use it.”
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2GoTrade’s has always been developing innovative apps and services for clients on top of its core brokerage platform. A good example would be the Employee Stock Ownership Plan or ESOP. Mr. Law mentioned that although the ESOP was late to gain traction in Hong Kong and Asia, it has proven to be an invaluable asset for companies, no matter listed, private or startup, helping them improve talent retention while reducing the workload of accounting and HR functions. Furthermore, startups that have a well-formed employee stock options reward system usually inspire greater confidence in venture capitalists. Another example would be the Virtual Personal Assistant, a Chatbot for securities companies which automates the answering of customer queries.

In parallel, 2GoTrade also plans to use AI and analytic tools themselves to improve their own day-to-day operations and provide faster support to the securities companies. Digitalization and automation are the definite trends of the future, and in the implementation process, it is inefficient for companies to allocate major resources to tedious and manual tasks. Essential services like cloud management and multi-cloud connectivity should be entrusted to HKT, a trustworthy and reliable service provider, making the digitalization and automation journey seamless and painless.