How the Banking Industry Benefits from Cloud Computing
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Financial institutions are grounded in trust, but before customers can trust a bank with their money, that bank must trust the data security in the solutions it uses to operate. Because of the huge monetary and reputational ramifications of a data breach, many bankers have been wary of handling their data in a cloud-based solution. However, our research has uncovered four impactful benefits of cloud computing that are proven to help the banking industry succeed.
1. Improved Data Security
Financial institutions today are painfully aware of the severe consequences of a data breach. When one occurs, it can cost millions in both fines and lost revenue. However, what most organizations might not know is that the majority of data leaks are within on-premise systems1.Today, there’s a misconception that moving to the cloud isn’t safe and that if information is stored in-house, that it means someone can’t break in to steal it as easily.
In short, the security of on-premise systems stands in opposition to the time, expertise and cutting-edge resources that cloud-based software providers can offer to their customers’ data. Cloud providers are far more likely to have state-of-the-art equipment and up-to-date software than the average company; this allows them to much more reliably safeguard your data than an on-premise deployment. While it might make some organizations feel like their data is more secure when they’re responsible for both protecting it and fixing any issues – the reality is far from it because the in-house team typically does not have the first-hand expertise with how the solution they’ve purchased was built and operates, among other reasons.
Managing your data, especially your financial data, with any new software is a serious undertaking that requires all cloud security criteria to be thoughtfully considered to make sure that you’re making the best choice possible. To do so, make sure that the solution you select meets the following criteria:
- Multi-year business plan alignment
- Corporate Standards Policies and Procedures (Meets and/or exceeds your own)
- A solid ROI
- Trust and confidence in their ability to execute
2. Removal of Mundane Tasks
Once you have considered the security benefits of cloud computing, there’s a natural transition to its ability to save you time as well. Overall, the greatest benefit to moving away from an on-premise setup comes from the removal of day-to-day tasks that can quickly consume your IT resources. Everything from maintenance to patching requires employee resources.
Your resources could be much better spent on value-adding tasks, such as focusing on analyzing growth opportunities for your financial institution or working on other IT projects that have been in your backlog. While individually these mundane tasks can be mere inconveniences to the day-to-day workflow, surveys show that maintenance tasks can consume over 50% of an IT team’s time no matter the size of the organization2. Still, these issues must be taken care of in order to avoid an audit, so it’s up to you to decide who will assume the burden – your employees or your cloud provider. Just remember that if you can find a reliable vendor for the solutions you don’t develop in-house, your employees could easily use the extra time to focus more on mission-critical activities for your organization.
When your financial institution moves their infrastructure over to the Cloud, any time spent by your IT team on both maintaining the system and ensuring its day-to-day security is removed from the equation. Now you won’t need additional IT staff if you expand, and your current employees can use their time to focus on the unique needs of your organization, instead of wasting their energy on the break-fix model that dominates the lives of so many IT professionals.
3. Reduced Infrastructure Costs
Perhaps the most visible benefit of Cloud computing over its on-premise counterparts is its ability to adapt to the needs and timetables of organization expansion. Traditionally, when financial institutions needed to increase or improve their IT resources, their search could easily become a time-consuming and financially draining task.
Decisions on what infrastructure to add, who to buy it from and even how and when to hire new staff members to handle the additional workload all required a notable amount of time for proper execution. Later on, all of these problems quickly multiplied when organizations needed to expand geographically to accommodate a merger or acquisition, or really to scale for any reason.
When institutions allow a cloud-based software provider to maintain the IT infrastructure of the solution they’re using, these problems are never an issue. Cloud hosting allows organizations to scale their IT needs up or down as needed, and instead of waiting on the time for delivery or the set-up time needed for scalability, the already existing infrastructure makes the process as painless as possible.
4. Increased Reliability and Performance
Finally, on-premise solutions have long maintained an illusion of steady reliability and strong performance—but that illusion has been shattered. A true benefit of transitioning to cloud computing is the realization of your financial institution’s efficiency goals. Remaining compliant with banking regulations is difficult enough, so look for streamlining opportunities wherever they are available.
By hosting your data in an easily-accessible and updated cloud solution, you are also earning top-notch disaster recovery with built-in redundancies—and any challenges that do arise are solved much faster.
The financial world is moving at a faster pace than ever to exceed customer expectations and market capabilities. You need your data to be where you are, operating at the speed of business and providing support in a timely manner.
While moving to the cloud might not be everyone’s highest priority, it’s becoming more and more important every day. Beyond security, organizations can not only decrease their fixed and variable expenses but also increase the financial health of their IT infrastructure. Therefore, those who don’t pay attention to the benefits of cloud computing now may face unnecessarily difficult and costly situations in the future.
To learn more about how Trintech deploys its cloud-based solutions, check out this brochure on our cloud security.
Written by: Chelsea Downey and Caleb Walter