INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Banking in the
cloud
‘If cloud providers had to
build multiple data centres
in every country, it would
nullify any savings that
would be made by going the
cloud route.’
and have built bullet-proof data centres, are extremely reticent when it
comes to handing over private client data to outside providers.’
Another inhibitor of cloud computing among financial services
organisations is the question of data residency. ‘Many countries
have regulations and laws in place that prohibit client data from
leaving the country. If cloud providers had to build multiple data
centres in every country, it would nullify any savings that would be
made by going the cloud route,’ says Vester.
These jurisdictional issues are proving a serious obstacle in the path
of storing and processing data in the cloud, as cloud providers more
often than not, store, process and back up data in several different
locations around the world. Data security and privacy is a mammoth
task, that is both time-consuming and expensive. Growing regulatory
challenges, data residency issues and the growing sophistication of
attacks, have seen CSOs investing in multiple security disciplines in
order to combat attacks and protect themselves. These include several
data-centric security solutions that see data encrypted at the source.
‘Either way, these issues may slow down the pace but certainly not
the direction,’ Vester says. ‘The advantages of cloud far outweigh the
benefits, as evidenced by the increasing take-up of cloud solutions by
large financial services organisations internationally.’
Improvements in cloud security and a wider variety of applications,
as well as investment in cloud, by vendors and purchasers alike,
are on the up and up. ‘cloud technology adoption in the financial
services sector has grown over the last few years. In the future,
we think it will grow even faster. Although there are security and
privacy concerns, and costs involved with the process of migrating
services to the cloud, ultimately the adoption of cloud is readying
the financial services sector, and building a platform for future
innovations.’
Robert Grimes, who works on the SAP Fina