As the trend towards a cloud-based infrastructure continues to gain pace, firms are increasingly considering migrating their SimCorp Dimension® application to the cloud. There are several strategies for leveraging cloud capabilities and benefits for SimCorp Dimension, including staying on-premises while hosting the application on a dedicated cloud, moving to the cloud with the SimCorp SaaS Platform, or switching entirely to another cloud-native platform. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the decision on which is most suitable ultimately depends on a firm’s specific priorities and strategy.

In this article, we will explore some of the migration activities firms need to consider when migrating their SimCorp Dimension application to the cloud.

Migration activities

While keeping the SimCorp Dimension platform on-premises provides firms with complete control and tailored workflows and security for the firm’s critical data and processes, it also typically requires substantial dedicated IT resources for support, changes, maintenance, and upgrades, which can be both costly and time-consuming. It may also limit the ability to scale as the business grows, and firms may miss out on some of the benefits of cloud-based infrastructure, such as cloud-native solutions, expert knowledge, operational resilience, and increased agility.

Lifting (or re-platforming) SimCorp Dimension to a public cloud infrastructure can provide scalability and cost-efficiency, as it enables the firm to leverage the cloud provider’s IT resources and expertise. However, running SimCorp Dimension on a cloud infrastructure still requires some internal IT management, and the firm may also need to invest in further infrastructure to connect to the cloud. Additionally, the firm may not leverage the full potential of cloud-first features and may face challenges integrating with other systems that are not on the same cloud provider. In essence, hosting SimCorp Dimension on a dedicated cloud only enables the infrastructure benefits of the cloud but leaves business optimizations and application optimizations on the table.

SimCorp’s SaaS Platform is a full-service offering for SimCorp Dimension, including public cloud hosting and IT managed services, hence moving to SimCorp SaaS provides the benefits of the cloud infrastructure as well as managed services such as:

1. Access management
2. Preventive management
3. End-user compliance and security

All of which reduces the need for internal IT resources.  The SimCorp SaaS Platform enables firms to focus on core business activities while leaving the IT management to SimCorp, which ideally should free up internal resources for other value generation, but at the same time also requires the firm to relinquish some control over the system to SimCorp® as the service provider. Finally, firms should also be aware of potential challenges integrating the SimCorp SaaS Platform with other systems operated locally or with another cloud provider.

When embarking on a large infrastructure change like moving SimCorp Dimension to the cloud, many firms discuss internally if their current investment management platform,  SimCorp Dimension, is compatible with the firm’s long-term strategic roadmap. 

While switching to another provider may look promising and provide firms with new solutions to specific business requirements, at the same time as revisiting implemented business processes and configuration, such benefits should be seen relative to the significant investment in both time, money, resources required for an implementation of a new platform, migration of data as well as training IT and business end-users costs. Additionally, the firm may face challenges in integrating with other systems and (business) processes that are currently built around SimCorp Dimension.

Migrations without a clear strategy, incomplete planning or poor execution typically end up costing more than budgeted for, while successful migrations typically have had internal support and advice on architecture, liaising with internal security teams, and (critical) subject matter expertise, as well as a well-documented plan for driving post-migration cloud adoption.

Having a clear vision and understanding the strategy and steps it takes to become a cloud-enabled business is therefore key and can help firms accelerate the value realization from cloud and lower the risk involved in the migration process.

Axxsys has unrivalled knowledge in this area and can assist firms with establishing a clear strategy and support the following activity areas:

• Project management
  • Project management where client does not have any available resources
  • PMO activities
• Re-refactoring
  • Assistance with re-factoring of client specific extracts and reports, workflows and processes.
  • Rewriting of queries that require optimisation
• Technical and database tasks
  • Coordination of database reduction activities prior to migration
  • Coordination of database migrations
• Test management
  • Plan and execute SIT and UAT testing, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity testing
• Parallel run assistance
  • Coordination of parallel run activities
  • Error tracking and resolution during the parallel run
• Go-live and Early-care assistance
  • Planning of cut-over and go-live activities
  • Error tracking and resolution during early care
  • End user assistance and training

At Axxsys we have extensive knowledge and experience in migrating SimCorp Dimension to the cloud and integrating cloud solutions with SimCorp Dimension across investment managers, so if you would like to know more about how we can support your cloud transition please contact us at info@axxsysconsulting.com

Blog authors:

Jakob Banning, Senior Manager, Axxsys Consulting

Morten Friis, Head of Investment Servicing Technology – UK and ME, Axxsys Consulting