FinTech collaboration: new partnership between Oxford University and Strategic Blue

London, UK (May 12, 2016) - Strategic Blue, a FinTech company in cloud computing, announces knowledge transfer partnership ("KTP") with Oxford e-Research Centre.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships help businesses to improve their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance.

In this new KTP the Oxford e-Research Centre and Strategic Blue will apply cutting edge data science expertise in cloud ecosystem analysis to enhance the technologies underpinning its financial cloud brokerage services and data analytics products.

The work will build on previous analyses of the cloud computing ecosystem to inform consumer decision-making on appropriate cloud technologies and providers, and enhance the development of a resilient cloud market.

The University of Oxford has a history of successful Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, with 7 KTPs awarded since 2010.

Professor David Wallom, Associate Director - Innovation at the Oxford e-Research Centre said,

“Our work with the CloudWATCH and CloudWATCH2 projects has demonstrated the benefits of gaining a good understanding of the cloud ecosystem. Within this KTP, in partnership with Strategic Blue, we will extend quantitative methodologies by which we can better understand a particular use of cloud computing and who is the best fit provider for them. This has the possibility of transforming the current use of cloud and, we would hope, support the development of a complete market”.

Dr James Mitchell, CEO of Strategic Blue added, "Cloud computing is the new electricity. How we buy and sell this new utility service will have a profound impact on the way the market for IT services matures over the next decade.

As a leading London-based FinTech business, working in partnership with Oxford University’s e-Research Centre, we believe we can guide the cloud industry towards a healthy, self-regulating trading model. We [Strategic Blue] aspire to be the architects of cloud trading models that underpin a transparent resale market; our trading models precede, and influence, the next stage of evolution for the Information Technology market.

We are demonstrating that the implementation of fair resale and trading contracts, based on our experience in electricity and other more commodity-like markets, increases market confidence for cloud buyers. We are very excited that our financial cloud brokerage services will have the opportunity to benefit from Oxford’s unique interdisciplinary expertise in both energy and cloud markets. We further recognise the importance of the University’s KTP experience as a vital aspect of this project to ensure the results can be applied to the wider industry”.

A Data Science Research Associate is now being recruited to work within Strategic Blue. KTP is one of the UK’s largest graduate recruitment programmes and provides the opportunity for the Associate to be mentored by both industry and academic professionals. Dr Mitchell said of the appointment, “This is a unique opportunity for an outstanding PhD graduate to understand the pricing data behind the burgeoning cloud market, and to help bring innovative data products to life for our clients and partners. We are very much looking forward to collaborating with Oxford University through this project, and are grateful to Innovate UK for contributing funding - it will be an exciting 2 years".

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About Oxford e-Research Centre

The Oxford e-Research Centre is a hub for multidisciplinary collaborations, enabling the use and development of innovative computational and information technology in both academic research and industrial applications. The Centre has a broad portfolio of research and development projects and receives research funding from all the UK research councils, industry and European Union. Its research activities cut across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, engineering and medicine, and its core research expertise includes visualization and visual computing, e-infrastructure, high-performance computing, and web sciences. There are currently around 50 staff members including over 40 researchers.

About Strategic Blue

Strategic Blue is a London-based FinTech company specialised in the pricing and procurement of cloud computing infrastructure. Founded in 2009 with a commodities trading background, Strategic Blue has pioneered the use of financial brokerage models in the cloud computing industry. It develops cutting edge data analytics products for cloud buyers across a range of sectors including commercial, academic and government in Europe and North America. For further information, please visit www.strategic-blue.com or contact us directly via contact@strategic-blue.com.

About Innovate UK
Innovate UK is the new name for the Technology Strategy Board – the UK’s innovation agency. Taking a new idea to market is a challenge. Innovate UK funds, supports and connects innovative businesses through a unique mix of people and programmes to accelerate sustainable economic growth.

About Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is Europe’s leading programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK-wide programme is overseen by Innovate UK – the UK’s innovation agency and supported by 16 other public sector funding organisations.