BlackRock to Apply Some Magic to Aladdin

BlackRock, will use software from Hewlett-Packard to speed development of applications for Aladdin, its investment management platform.

The world's largest asset manager will use an upgraded version of HP’s Application Lifecycle Management software in conjunction with a Lab Management Automation program to improve delivery of updates to the portfoilio management, trading and operational tools it uses in managing investments for 160 clients.

BlackRock uses Aladdin to manage roughly $12 trillion in assets, capturing and acting on data about "virtually everything that's moving in the financial markets," according to one of its technology officers.

The asset manager expects to eliminate more than two months of manual work each year for each application tester it employs.

The initiative will “ allow us to deliver high-quality applications that our customers want and demand faster than ever before,’’ said Jesus Arozamena, vice president, Automation Test Management, BlackRock.

The HP software automates the setup of testing environments for new applications and carries out aspects of the tests in parallel. This will reduce testing times from days to hours, BlackRock expects.

Testers can also automate daily checks of software already in production and schedule overnight tests that will run automatically.

BlackRock also intends to adapt the Aladdin system as the base for an electronic platform supporting direct trading of bonds between institutions.