BlackRock's Aladdin investment management platform to be hosted on Microsoft's cloud

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, has partnered with Microsoft Corp to have its Aladdin investment and risk management system hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, the companies said on Tuesday.

The migration to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform will take place over many months and Aladdin users are not expected to see any impact in the near term, BlackRock said.

"Aladdin infrastructure deployed on Microsoft Azure’s cloud platform will provide BlackRock with enhanced capabilities to deliver the best outcomes for our Aladdin clients," Rob Goldstein, chief operating officer at BlackRock, said in a statement.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

BlackRock's Aladdin system is used by asset managers to help manage the risk in their portfolios and assist them in trading, data management and other operations.

Aladdin, which began as internal investment management software, has in recent years been opened up for use by wealth managers such as UBS, Morgan Stanley and HSBC as BlackRock tries to increase revenue from technology.

Continued investment in Aladdin and its 2019 acquisition of French software provider eFront helped boost BlackRock's technology services revenue to almost $1 billion for 2019.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)