AI-based wealth management firm DCM migrates to Google Cloud with help from Customer Care.
About DCM
Founded in 2015, Data Capital Management is a leading digital wealth-management company. As one of the most advanced players in artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the financial sector, DCM leverages data, AI, and cloud-based technologies to develop proprietary machine learning models for investing based upon client preferences.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact usData Capital Management’s potentially tricky migration to Google Cloud was made easier thanks to innovative technology and ongoing support from Cloud Customer Care.
Google Cloud results
- Successfully migrated all workloads from AWS to Google Cloud, including the DCM.ai investor portal
- Reduced search time on third-party technologies
- Gained access to resources through Enhanced Support to help drive innovation
- Enabled internal teams to focus their attention on prototyping solutions, rather than searching for options
- Empowered teams to efficiently apply new approaches and quickly solve problems with unlimited access to support
- Increased visibility and transparency across systems by using Google Cloud tools
Enhanced Support gives DCM around-the-clock assistance
Data Capital Management wanted to advance their development of AI methods for investing in stocks, treasuries, and digital currencies. They believed their research and design collaboration in this area would empower individual and institutional investors with new levels of performance, transparency, and control.
But training these AI models requires massive volumes of data, and powerful computing capacity. As the firm’s operations grew, the opportunity to optimize performance with Google Cloud was a primary factor in the decision to migrate. "We were created to take advantage of the new opportunities cloud computing affords," said Michael Beal, Chief Executive Officer of DCM. "We started our firm in 2015 to take advantage of access to compute power. However, we knew that the space would be fast-evolving, and that eventually the competitive edge would shift from access to hardware, to access to services that help businesses grow. As such, we built our system with modularity in mind."
In order to carry out their goals, DCM transferred their investor portal and all supporting investment research, execution, and reporting features from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to Google Cloud. Due to both DCM’s and Google’s constant pursuit of dynamic growth and innovation, the relationship between them was great from the start.
DCM’s migration journey was smooth and successful thanks to their modular design, detailed planning, and continued guidance from Google Customer Engineers, the Technical Onboarding Center, and Enhanced Support, which enabled them to drive business development forward. As DCM evolves, the services offered by Google Cloud will continue to play a fundamental role in their story.
"If one values independent thought and second opinions, yes, absolutely I’d recommend Enhanced Support."
—Michael Beal, CEO at Data Capital ManagementAt the heart of DCM’s business is their commitment to the potential for AI to advance investment management. It requires a tremendous amount of trust to open up proprietary data, such as in scripts, so DCM’s A.I. Traders can make decisions about which financial instruments to buy and sell. DCM required a service they knew they could trust with such confidential information.
DCM needed a cloud provider and support service that was more than just technical support to fix short-term issues. Instead, they wanted a true strategic ally that could provide access to engineering resources to help solve their highly complex needs, and drive long-term innovation and business growth. This is what they found with Cloud Customer Care.
DCM’s microservices architecture enables their clients to combine insights and actions in interactive dashboards, standards reports, and highly portable widgets and apps. This provides DCM’s users with the freedom to custom design experiences that suit their investment objectives and workflows. Rather than spending an excessive amount of time and resources conducting internal research, Customer Care enabled DCM to consult with expert engineers and solution architects in order to find cost-effective solutions.
Beal’s focus is on building efficiently for the future: "I want our brilliant people to be spending time on where we are going next, instead of where we are now–especially if we can take incredible solutions that are available already."
"The transition from Role-Based to Enhanced Support gave us that extra help we needed. Our system is modular and we’re constantly seeking ways to improve the components. Google has experts everywhere and they can provide expertise on everything that we are interested in, or point to partners that have that expertise."
—Michael Beal, CEO at Data Capital ManagementAs a business, DCM builds proprietary machine learning models and execution systems. They believe in making the investment of research, time, and expenses to create the best proprietary solutions possible. They use Google Cloud solutions, such as BigQuery, Cloud SQL, GKE, Compute Engine, and Cloud Storage, and open source benchmarks for the work they’re doing.
DCM began to feel the benefits of support immediately. "We’re the only company that we know of where the value proposition is artificial intelligence that is learning your preferences and making investment decisions for you. So the solutions readily available in Google Cloud Storage help serve as benchmarks that play a very important part in helping us prioritize where we want to spend our valuable, scarce research time, versus incorporating an established solution," says Beal, who is an active member of C2C, the Google Cloud Customer Community. DCM’s technology supports AI Traders who customize their decisions based on the specific client’s preferences and use visual reporting tools to help clients make more data-driven investing decisions.
Cloud Customer Care played a major role in supporting DCM during and after the migration from AWS. Because DCM was already a leader in the finance industry in terms of their methods and use of AI, they couldn’t settle for a one-size-fits-all approach that relied on general best practices. Instead, they required a support service that could accommodate their unique needs. That’s what they found with Enhanced Support, a service within the Cloud Customer Care portfolio.
DCM’s transition to Enhanced Support was timed just before production dates to make sure their systems would run smoothly, and that they would have multiple support channels, fast response times, and third-party technology support.
"The transition from Role-Based to Enhanced Support allowed us to get support for third parties, including some of the Google Cloud Marketplace solutions," says Beal. "This meant we didn’t have to search for information on our own."
This was a highly beneficial step as DCM moved full production into Google Cloud. It enabled them to request meetings with the support and the account teams, obtain more customized answers, and collaborate in real time. Enhanced Support provides a streamlined solution that allows DCM to feel secure and supported at all times–a truly collaborative relationship.
As a Google Cloud customer, DCM benefited from the Technical Onboarding Center, which helped them with the migration process by providing well-documented readouts with improvement opportunities, and an executive-level report. "Having that impartiality really bolstered my confidence that we were building something with great quality," Beal reveals. "Google delivered the confirmation that we are structurally ready through the Onboarding Center."
Beal appreciated the improved problem-solving efficiency provided by the center, especially the fact that it allows DCM to solve issues using gradient descent algorithms – optimization algorithms that are used to train AI models by minimizing errors between predicted and actual results.
"You want to lower the addressable world of where the right answer can be for a gradient descent type of problem," says Beal. "That’s the top benefit that we personally get, given the types of problems that we’re trying to solve–lowering the time it takes for us to identify alternatives."
Implementation was completed prior to their production crossover, and it helped them carry out a successful production launch.
"The transition from Role-Based to Enhanced Support allowed us to get support for third parties, including some of the Google Cloud Marketplace solutions, in addition to the expertise from Google. This meant we didn’t have to search for information on our own."
—Michael Beal, CEO at Data Capital ManagementDCM’s journey provides a strong example of how Cloud Customer Care enables businesses to migrate, grow, and develop at their own pace, and prepare for the future – all while feeling fully supported. As DCM began migrating workloads to Google Cloud, Enhanced Support provided DCM with all the assistance they needed. Their next step was to get ready for production. This major transition was made easier thanks to the multidisciplinary expertise and around-the-clock assistance provided by Enhanced Support and the account team.
DCM comfortably scaled their operations and ultimately moved full production to Google Cloud. The Customer Care team, combined with partner support relationships, collaborated with DCM and third-party vendors, including vendors providing solutions in the Google Cloud Marketplace. This third-party technology support addressed multi-vendor issues such as secure setup, configuration, and troubleshooting.
Enhanced Support has given DCM much greater visibility and transparency – they’ve benefited from a level of expertise provided by Google that couldn’t be matched by a small, internal team. "The independent thinking, the expertise, and being able to reach out to the Google ecosystem is what I value," says Beal. "I’ve never seen a way to be able to make that work efficiently, and it has been so far so good with Google." DCM’s collaboration with Google Cloud and Customer Care has been invaluable during their migration period, and will continue to be an important relationship as they plan their strategic growth as a business.
Sign up for Customer Care.
Join the Google Cloud Customer Community today.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About DCM
Founded in 2015, Data Capital Management is a leading digital wealth-management company. As one of the most advanced players in artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the financial sector, DCM leverages data, AI, and cloud-based technologies to develop proprietary machine learning models for investing based upon client preferences.