User:AS DXB/Aladdin (BlackRock)

Lead
Aladdin (Asset, Liability and Debt and Derivative Investment Network) is an electronic system built by BlackRock Solutions, the risk management division of the largest investment management corporation, BlackRock, Inc. In 2013, it handled about $11 trillion in assets (including BlackRock's $4.1 trillion assets), which was about 7% of the world's financial assets, and kept track of about 30,000 investment portfolios. As of 2020, Aladdin managed $21.6 trillion in assets.

Senior Managing Director Sudhir Nair is the current Global Head of BlackRock's Aladdin program.

History
BlackRock developed Aladdin in the early 1990s as an in-house tool. The platform automated position-keeping, record-keeping, and risk control. By 1994, BlackRock managed General Electric’s bond portfolio using Aladdin. During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Aladdin analyzed risk for global investment banks. BlackRock executed multi-billion-dollar refinancing transactions. This role enhanced Aladdin’s and BlackRock's reputations. Aladdin evolved into an end-to-end investment platform. It combines risk analytics with portfolio management, trading, and operations tools. Aladdin serves private and institutional funds. It acts as an operating system for investment managers. The hosted service of Aladdin is operated by BlackRock’s IT staff of more than 600. Aladdin manages over $20 trillion in assets, amounting to approximately ten percent of the world’s financial assets. Aladdin faces competition from providers like SimCorp, MSCI Barra, Bloomberg, and Refinitiv. Aladdin's advantage lies in its control over financial data, which enables economies of scale. The continuous development of Aladdin demonstrates BlackRock's commitment to technological innovation in asset management. The platform's capabilities are essential for managing global assets and navigating financial complexities.

Popular references
Adam Curtis's 2016 documentary HyperNormalisation cites the Aladdin system as an example of how modern technocrats attempt to manage the complications of the real world.

Technology
Aladdin uses the following technologies: Linux, Java, Hadoop, Docker, Kubernetes, Zookeeper, Splunk, ELK Stack, Apache, Nginx, Sybase ASE, Snowflake, Cognos, FIX, Swift object storage, REST, AngularJS, TREP.

It was built/upgraded using Julia, i.e. "analytics modules for" were written in Julia. It has also been reported that it was written originally in C++, Java and Perl.