OptionMetrics has made its suite of historical and intraday options data and analytics available through Snowflake’s private cloud marketplace, allowing investors and quant researchers to access and analyse derivatives data without maintaining their own storage infrastructure.

The move allows Snowflake users to query OptionMetrics datasets directly through their existing cloud environment, with the data provider maintaining and updating the information on the platform.

OptionMetrics said the cloud-based delivery is designed to simplify access to data used for derivatives strategy research, backtesting, volatility analysis and risk management while reducing the need for firms to download and store large datasets themselves.

The offering includes IvyDB US, the company’s core historical end-of-day US options database, alongside an intraday version providing snapshots at 10:00am, 2:00pm, and 3:45pm Eastern Time.

The Snowflake catalogue also includes IvyDB Europe, IvyDB Asia, IvyDB Canada and IvyDB Global Indices, as well as IvyDB Futures covering US and European futures options.

The datasets provide coverage across major options markets, including exchanges in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The Asia product includes historical data from markets such as Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.

For quantitative investment teams, access to intraday data could be particularly relevant for analysing short-dated options strategies and patterns in volatility throughout the trading session.

OptionMetrics said moving its datasets into a cloud environment should make it easier for users to work with large volumes of options information while avoiding the infrastructure and storage requirements associated with maintaining local copies.

The company said making its datasets available through Snowflake provides institutional investors and academic researchers with a more convenient way to access the options information they use for research and analysis.

Users will need an existing Snowflake licence to access the OptionMetrics datasets through the platform.

The development reflects the growing use of cloud-based market data infrastructure by quantitative investors, as firms seek faster access to increasingly large datasets without having to build and maintain extensive internal data storage and processing capabilities.