4 minute read
The Age of The Cloud
In his answers to MEA Finance, Naim Yazbeck Regional Director, Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft UAE, succinctly sums up the essential role that Cloud Technology plays across the banking and financial markets, and wider industry, highlighted by the increase in spending on its services in the past few years and the features, security and opportunities it offers for businesses and their customers
It’s estimated that cloud infrastructure accounts for one-third of banks’ IT spending. Will this proportion reduce or expand in the coming years?
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In the past couple of years, the banking and finance sector has heavily invested in technology. Today, it is important for organizations across all industries to be digitally advanced in order to cope with the demands of the new normal. It has been observed that the majority of the leading businesses have migrated their workloads to the cloud and that this trend will further continue ahead into the years to come. Even the finance sector has benefitted from the features of cloud services like scalability and flexibility, amongst many others. According to predictions from Gartner, global spending on cloud services is expected to reach over US$482 billion in 2022, up from US$313 billion in 2020. Cloud computing infrastructure is the backbone of the delivery pipeline of just about every digital
service there is, from social media and streaming entertainment to connected cars and autonomous internet of things (IoT) infrastructure. Looking at these figures it is proved that a significant portion of the IT budgets for banks will be directed to cloud operations.
Is cloud-based computing becoming strategically important for banks and financial institutions?
Absolutely. Banks and financial institutions need resiliency, and greater reliance on mission-critical applications. They have to serve both businesses and individuals which means their operation needs to be seamless where financial transactions are concerned. Hence, banks and financial organizations need to be highly secured and accessible through their services. In the case of any technical failures, whether from internal or external factors, banks need to have a stronger security infrastructure and the cloud can fulfill this need better than any other IT technology available today.
Businesses can use scalability, a key feature of cloud computing, to expedite the time-to-market process in addition
to adaptability. This will introduce new ideas and services to existing markets, which will eventually spread to newer markets. From the advanced workloads’ perspective, the cloud also utilizes the power of AI and machine learning to understand customer behaviors and business insights. These are some of
Naim Yazbeck, Regional Director, Enterprise and Partner Group (EPG), Microsoft UAE the key factors that will enable banks and financial institutions to adopt cloud solutions.
As digitization takes hold, are more critical front office banking services being migrated to the cloud?
Cloud technology is the enabler for applications that must run continuously
for businesses to succeed. Similarly, scalability is linked to front-end applications that operate based on consumer demand. These can greatly benefit from the cloud’s hyperscale feature, which allows businesses to plan for seasonal demand in a cost-effective manner.
Are fintech’s taking an increased role in providing cloud-based managed services and will this lead to more engagement between banks and fintech?
Through the Software as a service (SaaS) delivery model, Fintech can undoubtedly add significant value to the banking experience. The efficiency of this model can only be attained by securing alignment from compliance, regulations and by integrating systems to provide agility, easy access to market and the saving of time.
Has the cloud improved banks’ data storage and analytics gathering capabilities?
For businesses that deal with large amounts of data, cloud technology has been a game changer. Banking and financial services have benefited largely from this technological advancement, resulting in an improved customer experience. Cloud services have enabled data lakes and data meshes, allowing the collection of high volumes of data from various sources in a unified pool. This has further helped banks in data processing, data visualization, gaining insights and developing user cases and predicting the future with the help of AI and machine learning.
What are the security advantages of having services based in the cloud?
Cloud services are designed and managed to comply with the needs of the enterprises in today’s day and age. Companies across sectors need to adopt cloud computing and reinforce their security stance across various layers of operations. Microsoft continues to remain at the forefront of the most industry-leading security standards that provide assurance and key benefits for financial institutions using cloud services. Features of cloud technology like flexibility, affordability, scalability and ease-of- access are some of the most important advantages of having services based in the cloud.
