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Financial services companies have never had it easy: they have always had to comply with an array of strict regulatory requirements and government mandates. Meeting customer expectations has always been a challenge. And when a data breach occurs, they are the hardest to hit.
With security having a big influence on the financial services sector, most companies have been banking on traditional data centers to deliver key applications. The notion that on-premises data centers deliver the required level of security has restricted the industry from opening up to the cloud.
But over the last couple of years, this is slowly changing. With pressure to modernize IT and make the user experience more convenient, the sector is now opening up to cloud adoption in a big way. And amongst all the cloud models, hybrid clouds are the most popular among financial services companies. Wondering why? Read on to find out!
The challenges plaguing the industry
Given the pace of new technology advancement, digital disruption is on the way for financial services companies – irrespective of whether they are ready for it or not.
However, with an array of challenges plaguing the industry, the time has come for companies to embrace tools and technologies that can help them deal with the challenges head-on:
- Dealing with data breaches can cost financial services companies millions of dollars in losses.
- Keeping pace with the constantly evolving regulatory landscape and ensuring 100% compliance
- Understanding customer needs and providing services that are modern, innovative, and secure
- Automating back-end processes, personalizing the end-user experience, and providing easier access to modern applications
- Retaining not just employees but also customers to maintain a competitive position in the market
With the sector looking to digitally transform and evolve, they are constantly under pressure of modernizing their IT and making services more convenient for end-users. This is why the sector is aggressively looking to move away from traditional data center models and pave the way towards cloud adoption, so they can achieve the required flexibility to keep up with market demands as well as the control needed to ensure the safety of data.
The upsurge in hybrid cloud adoption
As Financial services companies kick-start their digital transformation journey, they are benefiting hugely from hybrid cloud adoption. Since hybrid clouds provide the right amalgamation of private and public cloud environments with a good degree of interoperability between them, they allow companies to maintain the right balance between privatization and modernization.
Hybrid clouds provide financial services companies with the level of control required to be in charge. They help companies have control over their business-critical data while allowing a cloud provider to manage and maintain their non-critical workloads. They allow companies to minimize latency and make it easier for data to be where it needs to be. In addition, they also allow financial services companies to build, maintain, and expand the network as required and grow their business – quickly and seamlessly.
With security as a guiding factor for hybrid cloud adoption, financial services companies can:
- Migrate workloads between environments and comply with the constantly evolving regulatory landscape.
- Cater to an increasingly remote landscape and offer a customer experience that is seamless, secure, and consistent.
- Gain greater control over IT spending while ensuring 24×7 availability and security of business-critical data.
- Get the best of public cloud flexibility and private cloud security to drive value in a highly regulated market.
- Scale up and down their needs in real-time and avoid paying for unused digital capacity.
- Move digital resources where they are needed, respond to shifting customer demands, and drive higher levels of efficiency.
- Overcome geographical limitations and speed up innovation across the global enterprise.
- Leverage emerging technologies like AI to identify and address cyber threats and keep data secure at all times.
- Spin up applications in the cloud instantly and drastically reduce the time taken to provide new-age services to customers.
Ensure continued success
As financial services companies struggle to overcome the slew of challenges spanning data security, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and customer and employee retention, the flexibility and cost benefits of hybrid clouds cannot be overlooked.
Hybrid clouds enable the sector to prepare for a dynamic, mobile-first future and achieve immediate and long-term flexibility to adapt to changing conditions and ensure continued success.
If you want to improve speed to market, enjoy more flexibility, make your business more resilient to risks and changes, and ensure a high level of security, you need to embrace a hybrid cloud strategy today! Invest in the right tools and the right skills; better still, partner with an experienced technology partner to ensure success with your hybrid cloud migration.
