Finance & Investment Firm IT
Managed IT and cybersecurity for asset managers, hedge funds, RIAs, and finance shops across NY/NJ. SEC/FINRA-aware, audit-ready, performance-tuned.
Common challenges
- SEC Marketing Rule, Cybersecurity Risk Management Rule, and Reg S-P
- FINRA cybersecurity expectations and 17a-4 record retention
- Bloomberg, FactSet, Refinitiv terminal connectivity
- Order management and execution platforms (Fidessa, Charles River, Eze, etc.)
- Trading-floor performance — every millisecond matters
- Encrypted email and secure file transfer to LPs/investors
- Annual third-party penetration testing (often contractually required)
How we solve them
- SEC/FINRA-aware control sets with documented evidence
- 17a-4 compliant email archive (Smarsh, Global Relay, Mimecast)
- MFA and conditional access on every system in scope
- Bloomberg/FactSet network design with QoS and redundant ISP
- SOC monitoring with defined IR runbook
- Annual pen-testing coordination
- LP/investor portal security and DDQ response support
Compliance support
- SEC Reg S-P (privacy of consumer financial information)
- SEC Cybersecurity Risk Management Rule (proposed/finalized rules)
- FINRA Rule 17a-4 (record retention)
- SOC 2 Type II preparation (often LP-mandated)
- State investment adviser registration cybersecurity requirements
IT that survives the next regulatory exam
Finance firms have a different IT bar than other SMBs. The SEC examines, FINRA examines, your LPs examine, and your D&O insurer examines — and every one of them has cybersecurity and operational continuity questions. We design infrastructure with that examination calendar in mind, not as something you bolt on right before a DDQ goes out.
Common stacks we manage
Order management and trading: Fidessa, Charles River, Eze, Bloomberg AIM. Market data: Bloomberg Terminal, FactSet, Refinitiv (FXall, Eikon). Portfolio accounting: Advent Geneva, Eze, SS&C. CRM: Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, Dynaroot, DealCloud. Email archive: Smarsh, Global Relay, Mimecast (17a-4 compliant). LP portal: Investran, eFront, Backstop. File transfer: Box (SOC 2 in-scope), ShareFile, Egnyte.
What “SEC/FINRA-aware” architecture means
Documented control set mapped to your firm’s compliance manual and the regulators’ expectations. 17a-4 compliant email archive with WORM (write-once-read-many) storage. MFA on every business-critical system, with privileged-access logging. Network segmentation between trading, back office, and guest. Redundant ISP for trading-day reliability — your Bloomberg and execution venues cannot go dark on a market-moving morning. Annual third-party penetration test coordinated, results documented and remediated. Documented incident response with breach counsel and your prime broker’s notification process pre-mapped. Backup with immutable retention so your books and records survive a ransomware incident intact. LP/investor DDQ response binder kept current — when an LP DDQ comes in, the answers are ready, not improvised.
SOC 2 Type II readiness
A growing share of LPs require SOC 2 Type II from their managers. We don’t write the audit (you’ll engage a CPA firm for that), but we implement the technical controls and produce the evidence so audit prep is a six-week sprint, not a six-month rebuild. Our Compliance-as-a-Service program wraps SOC 2 and PCI control implementation into an ongoing managed service — so your controls stay current between audit cycles, not just during them.
For firms without a dedicated CIO or CISO, our vCIO & vCISO advisory provides the strategic IT and security leadership your regulators and LPs expect — DDQ response binders, annual IT strategy reviews, and vendor security assessments included. And when something goes wrong, a standing Incident Response retainer means your response team already knows your environment and your prime broker’s notification requirements before the incident starts.
What we do not do
We are not a finance-only IT boutique. We compete with shops like Eze IT services or Fundamental IT for the segment of the market that wants finance-aware controls without the price tag of a finance-only specialist. If your firm has $500M+ AUM and a dedicated CTO, you may want a specialist; if you are a $50M–$500M AUM RIA or family office, our integrated MSP model usually fits well.
What it costs
Most finance clients land in our Sovereign tier ($225/workstation/month plus infrastructure) given the compliance scope and 24/7 expectations. Annual pen-testing coordination, SOC 2 control implementation, and DDQ binder maintenance are scoped separately based on firm size.
If you operate a NY/NJ finance firm and want a 30-minute compliance-IT review, book a call or get a number from the MSP cost calculator.
Related services
- Managed IT — day-to-day infrastructure, patching, and help desk for your firm
- Cybersecurity — SOC monitoring, pen-test coordination, and SEC/FINRA-aware controls
- Compliance-as-a-Service — SOC 2 and PCI control implementation and ongoing compliance monitoring
- vCIO & vCISO Advisory — strategic IT and security leadership for firms without a dedicated CIO/CISO
- Incident Response Retainer — defined breach response with prime broker notification process pre-mapped
- Cloud — Azure/AWS/M365 with compliance-ready configurations
- Backup & Disaster Recovery — immutable, WORM-compatible backup for books and records
- Custom Development — LP portal integrations, DDQ automation, and internal tooling
Most-asked-for services for finance & investment firm it
Ready for IT that does not surprise you?
A 30-minute call. No slide deck. We will tell you what looks healthy, what looks risky, and what we would do first.