Nasdaq and AWS Partner to Transform Markets

the phone from North Carolina. Lauren Dillard is Executive vice president of Investment Intelligence at NASDAC. Lauren joins us on the phone from Austin, Texas. Great to have you both with us, Lauren, I want to start with you, uh and just understand why the partnership is is why this is the right partnership for NASDAC, NASDAC and AWS UM. Well, thank you Tim for having for having us both and we're excited to talk about this. Look at NAZAC, we've

had a long cloud journey. Actually, our vision is that the global capital markets and where we sit UM will be enabled and belong in the cloud. I think everything you're seeing in the markets today UM just reinforce that that they have to be dynamic, they have to be

future focused, they have to be innovative. New retail brokers have to be able to set up shop quickly and frankly, you know, as the technology provider, we have long had many, many kind of cloud native products on the back of Amazon, and this partnership just really solidifies taking the markets themselves into the future. We can talk about the details that

we have. We have actually a lot of the surrounding systems already in the cloud because we've been on this journey with with Amazon for for over a decade now, but truly moving the matching engine, the actual matching engine in the markets. The cloud is is what we're endeavoring to do across the markets and APEX run and we're we're delighted with the partnership. We have a come on in on the conversation. So you know, you guys work with a lot of companies that depend on you for

various cloud services. We know that aws IS is massive. Um, when you approach a project like this, how do you think about it? Uh, and and listen to the client in terms of what they're needing, especially when it comes to financial markets. Right, this is our bread and butter and you've got to make sure that they're running smoothly. Thank you so much, Carol, Tim for having me and Lauren here. And we're really excited about the partnerships. And one of the greatest things about AWS is that we

do everything with a foundation built on leadership principles. And one of our our top leadership principles actually customer obsession and what that means is actually working backwards from the customer. Now with NASDAC, they are both a customer and a partner. And as Lauren mentioned, this has been a ten year relationship, so nearly a decade going back, um, we had our NAZAC. We had NAZAC CEO Adina Freedman on stage at our annual conference Reinvent this past November to talk about this, uh,

this multi year partnership. But if I go back to even when Nezac first moved from an on premises data warehouse to an a w S data warehouse to increased scale and performance and lower operational costs, that was really

the start of it. And then that cluster continued to grow as NAZBAT grew and they continued to consume more and more of a WS services, so as we think about the next phase of the partnership when NAZBAC will move all of its operations to a WUS, and Lauren mentioned moving the matching engine, which is the technology that powers then stac stocket change. It's really incredible because we're looking at not just what it gives them, but also

gives their end customers as well. So it gives them and other market infrastructure operators and market participants the ability to confidantly move their trading systems to the cloud. It's really the first of its kind of collaboration that we've had designed to meet the latency, fairness, and regulatory requirements

of the world's most critical markets. And what we're excited about is that it helps deepen the capabilities that Nasdaq has and anti financial crime data and analytics and market infrastructure software solutions for their clients helps them deliver it at Lauren, I gotta bring you back because the last year and a half or so, certainly during the pandemic, right we were all watching the rise of the retail

investor and meme stocks and alternate trading platforms. How do you guys think about what your platform needs to be, especially as how we trade and the financial markets in a big way continue to evolve and and kind of test if you will, UM, the establishment, which you guys are a part of. Even though you're certainly younger than the New York Stock Exchange, Um, you're considered part of

the establishment. And people are, especially a younger generation, a younger retail investor, are looking for different ways to be involved in the market. Well, let me start with just fundamentally the markets. The security of the markets, the resiliency, the reliability, I mean, those are all core too, frankly allowing market participants and and as Ruba said, um we at NAZAC our purpose is fundamentally inclusive capital, driving inclusive capital.

So we want more market participants. That's that's fund and the lead the way we think about it. So if you kind of tie this back to our cloud discussion, that resiliency, that security, that innovation, that scalability. UM is a big reason why this partnership is very important to us as we look forward in scale. And you are exactly right if you think about the market itself from

pre pandemic to now, this is a good fact. Prior to two thousand nineteen, the average message count for options was about fifteen billion messages and now the new normal for options fifty five billion messages. So there is an enormous amount of activity on the markets and that market resiliency is so critical to us, and we and NAZAC take great pride in that. And I should mention in Ruba. Ruba touched on this as as you did as well. We run our NAZAC market, but we actually also power

over a hundred and thirty other market infrastructure clients. So when you think about how important this this cloud journey is for us, it's not just for our own markets, which is obviously critical and those those numbers that I just said are staggering, but it's also spanning all of the exchanges and banks and clearing houses and and other other technology platforms that we provide um and that rely on us frankly for clearing and trading and settlement and surveillance.

So we are a technology provider for and so this cloud journey really shows the other markets that we can endeavor on this journey as well. Okay, Reybody, I want to get a little nitty gritty here with what exactly AWS is doing for for NASDAC. Here are we talking fully cloud like all off premise or is there stuff on the edge that helps make that transition to the

cloud thanks to him. It's actually both. So what we're really excited about here is that cord to NASDAK move to a WS will be something we call a WS outposts, which extends the AWS Infrastructure Services, APIs and tools to virtually any data center, co location space or on premises facility. So we're really excited about that, and it does provide all of those services um and we're starting in a phased approach. So actually we began with one of the markets in January of this year, and so we'll be

following a phased approach to to continue that expansion. All right, we're gonna come back and continue the conversation with ruber Borno, she's Global Channel chief at Amazon Web Services on the phone in North Carolina. And Lauren Dillard, Executive vice president of Investment Intelligence at NASDAK, on the phone from Austin, Texas. Our guest with us ruble Borno, she is Global channel chief over at Amazon Web Services. She's with us on

the phone from North Carolina. Also with us, Lauren Dillard, Executive VP of Investment Intelligence on at NASDAK on the phone from Austin, Texas. They've been talking about their partnership between the two building out the next gen cloud enabled infrastructure for capital markets, the global capital markets. Hey, guys, I wanted to ask you, UM hard to ignore with every leader that we have here on at Bloomberg to talk about some of the headlines the in Ukraine because

of the Russian invasion, volatility in the financial markets. UM, there's so many questions about the global economic and market outlook and whether it's really time to rethink the second half of the year. And I'm curious how you each see it. And Lauren, let me start with you. Because there's been so much volatility in the markets. What are some of the conversations that you guys are having at NASDAC about maybe what what what's to come here? In Well?

I mean, it is our role and responsibility to have resilient markets UM, to frankly make sure that they can handle the peaks of of traffic and latency, which we talked about UM, and and we don't see any of that changing. UM. We continue to have records of message traffic. So I would say from a just market resiliency perspective. We're very proud of being able to support the levels frankly, that we've seen to date around you know, the rest

of the capital markets. You know, we sit in a really unique place in the eCos of them, so we set in between asset managers and investors and corporates, and frankly, a lot of the needs around the clients we serve are unchanged there. They of course are changed from pressure, but you know, they still need to do business, they still need to make investments, they still need to do manager research, which is something that we provide on our technology,

our corporate listed clients. They'll need to understand their investors, and there's obviously a a push for more E s D disclosures, So all of kind of those business matters continue. We have a healthy pipeline of I P O s UM and it remains strong. But because of the market volatility, we could see some of those getting pushed out UM, so that we see a little bit of what I would call an adjustment. But the pipeline has been extraordinarily strong to start and you don't see any of that

at this point. The pipeline backing off at this point, Lauren, I mean you've seen some quality deals take place despite what you've seen with some of the pullback. But um, and there's still a lot of optimism and frankly, you know accessing the public markets, UM. But you know windows open and closed, and so the team that focuses on that, you know, stays with that pipeline. So RU, But let me bring you in this kind of same thing. I mean, like we said, we asked all of our leaders who

are coming on UM about the headlines. You know, one of the things that we are realizing or that we've seen certainly, is that in this war, it's certainly a ground war and military war, but it's also a cyber war. And we have talked so much about cybersecurity. How are you guys at Amazon Web Services? Are you seeing any kind of breaches or increased act activity because of our

following this war in Ukraine. It's such a good question. Um. While we're seeing an increasing activity of malicious state actors, were also just being higher operational tempo by other malicious actors. And we've seen several situations where malware has specifically targeted charities, NGOs and other aid organizations just to spread confuse, Usian and cause disruption. UM. So this is an area where

we are focused. We're continuing to work hard to protect UH these customers and we're going to continue to work closely with them UM as they carry out their much needed work to help those that are impacted by this terrible conflict. But that's absolutely a huge focus of ours is UH cybersecurity and supporting our customers. There have to follow up. Do you know any indication of where kind of the bad actors are coming from? At this day, we haven't shared anything publicly on that, but it's this

is something that's just activities increasing. It could be coming from anywhere. So Ruba, what would you say to people listening right now who need to keep their own networks safe and what's the right way to do this in

this environment? That's thank you, sim So. Our teams are continually learning from the intelligence that we collect, and I think that what we're working on with our customers is work with your account manager, security specialist, solution architects, and other technical professionals to constantly assess the threat landscape that you have, the threat perimeter that you have, and ensure that you are secure. But we are ready to support our customers there, but it's it's really a constant game.

The threat landscape is constantly increasing, UM, and the number of threat actors is constantly increasing as well. So it is diligence that isn't a destination. You will never have it solved at the end, but it is constant work UM. And so I would say, just reach out and we're ready to help. I also am curious for both of you in terms of employees you might have overseas, whether

it's Russia or Ukraine. I mean, one of the things that has come out about this and unfortunately, UM it's come out because it took a war for us to understand.

You know, how much companies reply rely on I t out of Ukraine, UM, and how important it is um, Lauren, any thoughts on that, I would just I would just say that we we obviously run markets in in across Europe, specifically the Nordics and the Baltics, so UM, we we are very focused, as as our other companies on you know, the safety of our employees obviously, the resiliency of our markets UM and and of course the outpouring of our our employees families. UM. And we are focused of course

on the humanitarian release and efforts. UM. So you know, I think we like every company that have anyone nearby or focused on our employees there and and of course again since we run the markets in the Baltics and then Ordics, extremely focused on resiliency. Yeah, but what about you when it comes to Amazon Web Services. We've done a lot of reporting on tech companies that have had

to get employees out of Ukraine. But um, what's the presence right now in Russia, Ukraine, UH, in Belarus and and what are you doing in those areas right now? So we don't have a local presence right now, So it's just about for us to without a local presence to provide direct support and award zone. But we are focused on the humanitarian aspects of this. So it's donations.

Are employees want to donate, so we're also matching their donations. UM, we're helping our customers as well with donation buttons on charitable organizations in the whole pages of our websites. And then in addition to that, UM, focusing on our people. So not only are we supporting our team members, UH. For example, team members in adjacent countries like Poland, we've given them additional time off to take care of themselves

and their families. But this is something where we're going to have to respond to the moment and meet our employees where they are, so as we hear feedback on what they need, we will meet them in that moment. Well, our thanks to both of you, and good luck with the ongoing partnership that you've got. Ruba Borno, Global Channel chief at Amazon Web Services, on the phone from North Carolina. Lauren Dillard, Executive EP of Investment Intelligence over at NASDAC,

on the phone from Austin, Texas. But we really appreciate them also, uh their frankness about what's going on in terms of the war in Ukraine.