First, accessing cloud-based offerings will ultimately drive down infrastructure and data management costs through optimized resource allocations. Bottom line will be a fatter bottom line.

Moreover, the cloud concept delivers something technology-dependent trading firms desperately need: future proofing. With the pace of technical change rampant in financial firms, the operational risks associated with the constant upgrading of this, that and the other are far greater than most of us appreciate. By migrating technical infrastructure to a more managed framework – with combinations of private and public clouds – trading firms have a shot at muffling the break-neck pace of technology migration and upgrades.

Second, and much more importantly for the long term, bringing managed infrastructure into the mix is synonymous with the concept of infrastructure-on-demand (IOD). As the ease of accessing IOD increases, watch out for a flood of innovation. Having eliminated the lags, expenses and headaches of implementing the platform on which new services, solutions and features will stand means that new innovations can be pushed out customers much more quickly, easily and cheaply. This goes for internal functionality as well. New strategies, risk analytics and reporting will be among the litany of capabilities that will be enjoyed internally by trading firms as IOD evolves from exception to rule.

Now the main drawback from the coming wave of innovation will be felt by end users as they attempt to sift through this growing arsenal of features and functionality; a challenge that represents both blessing and curse. With oncoming clouds will also come a flood of oncoming sunshine.

Enjoy these new weather patterns in financial markets. They will be a welcome – and necessary – counterbalance to regulatory and economic storms brewing in all corners of the globe.  Oh, and don’t forget the sunscreen.