NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- On the evening of November 7^th, Yohan Kim, COO of Richard Fleischman & Associates, spoke at the Mankoff Company's 4^th Annual RegTech: After the Bell Forum on Regulations, Technology Infrastructure and Today's Trading Environment. Mr. Kim, along with Jake Freifeld, Portfolio Manager at Chilmark Hill Capital of San Francisco, addressed top-of-mind issues involved with utilizing Cloud technology, specifically with buy vs. build and as the event was held a week after Hurricane Sandy and the night of a powerful Nor'easter, targeting Disaster Response planning.

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"There are a lot of cloud providers, but only a handful are specialized enough for hedge funds," said Mr. Kim. "With our clients, 80% of new build outs in the last year use the cloud" but, he added, "you need to understand your requirements and what sort of customization is necessary for your environment and of course you have to evaluate cost vs. performance."

Further discussion with both Mr. Kim and Mr. Freifeld underscored the need for preparedness when a situation such as a hurricane or another related incident caused buildings to be evacuated interrupting several hundred businesses. "During that week," Mr. Kim said "we had multiple funds and about 100 people utilizing our hot site from the Carnegie crane and Wall St flooding incidents.  It is imperative that you have your infrastructure secured and Business Continuity Plan in place before these situations arise."

At the end of the panel session, and after several back and forth comments from the audience of hedge funds, asset management firms, proprietary trading firms and solution providers, Mr. Kim had one last comment "It's one thing when all businesses are down - then it is a level playing field.  People are most afraid when their business is down and someone else's is up.  It's a competitive environment and people need a secure back-up of their operations."

About Richard Fleischman & Associates:

Richard Fleischman and Associates is a New York based firm providing turnkey IT solutions to the financial community.  This includes cutting edge disaster recovery and business continuity planning, and all that a financial firm needs to manage IT and communications. RFA has a team of 150+ expert IT consultants who can partner to recommend related vendors and are well-versed in the types and levels of technology required by funds to manage their investor's assets in the most efficient, secure ways possible. www.rfa.com

SOURCE Richard Fleischman & Associates