16 Finally, tech companies understand that in the modern workplace, everyone is already a cloud worker, as everyone is connected6. 94 percent of survey respondents use laptop, smartphone, tablet, or wearable device while commuting, traveling, or at home. Meanwhile, cloud workers spend 4.6 hours of their day on 7 average in a web browser . Investment in security upgrades and a refresh of workplace policies is essential. Tech companies have recognized that valuable knowledge workers can be productive from many places-in the office, on the train, at home, and even on the beach. Remote work is still rare at capital markets firms, but occasional-to-semi-regular remote work has become table stakes for attracting top talent. 02 Fostering an “everyone is a programmer” culture in the front office and bringing AI to the middle and back office. By democratizing the ability to build solutions across the business, rather than isolating those capabilities in innovation labs, firms can build better products for their clients. Code is easier to follow and more auditable and testable than traditional tools such as spreadsheets8. The front office may finally be less wedded to management via a spreadsheet, if the tools are more fit for purpose. To this end, the chief operations officer at a large global asset manager indicates that the firm is natively building its new applications for funds distribution and marketing in the cloud. This encompasses methodologies that enable a user- driven approach to delivering software, rather than building monolithic applications the firm has focused on in the past. It also means that the business has direct access to more tools for development. Using sophisticated data analytics tools and ML to make better investment decisions and to build better products is becoming standard practice across the 9 industry. Indeed, 77 percent of buy-side firms surveyed by Aite Group in 2018 on the subject of alternative data indicated that they were in the process of establishing, or had already established, a strategy to use this data to inform their investment process. A chief data scientist from a midsize hedge fund (with less than US$100 million in AUM) indicates that although the firm does not manage a huge amount of client assets, it has spent more than US$5 million so far acquiring alternative data sources and building out related internal analytics tools. The firm has always been a quant-driven shop, relying heavily on unique data inputs and sophisticated analysis engines to build predictive models. 6https://cloud.google.com/chrome-enterprise/cloudworker/ 7 A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Google, Rethink Technology in the Age of the Cloud Worker, 2018. 8https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22223190 9Aite Group, Alternative Data in Active Asset Management: A New Source of Alpha?, 2018.