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Since the advent of cloud computing, several banking-related firms have gradually migrated to the cloud. Banks are using cloud services more and more as data production and consumption grow exponentially. They can centralise data storage, offer real-time analytics, and fulfil the need for speed and capacity.

This blog is for you if you are also thinking about using cloud services but are unsure how the various deployment & operating models fit into your digitalization strategy.

Cloud computing is required in the banking sector

Cloud services are on-demand offerings that give users online access to shared resources, programmes, or storage. Instead of using local systems, it lets banking institutions to store and analyse data on distant servers. Although the banking sector has been sluggish to adopt cloud technology because of worries about letting go of their old on-premises applications, regulatory compliance, and data protection issues, this attitude is quickly changing. More and more financial institutions today are realising how technology can both help them achieve their business goals and meet the demands of their clients.

The use of the cloud also involves a new form of IT ownership; it's not just about technology. With this strategy, banks may develop more quickly, become more agile, and gain access to previously unattainable economies.

In our opinion, an accurate cloud model should:

provide a framework for the continuous and secure distribution of material, apps, and services

Make banks autonomous so they can manage new services without having to manually install software or upgrade their infrastructure.

Use consumption-based pricing to increase your flexibility and transparency, such as with a pay-as-you-go system.

enabling the scaling up or down of computer resources in accordance with demand

Make data available to any business process or service that may need to consume it by separating it from applications.

To learn more about the primary motivators and application scenarios for cloud adoption in the financial services industry, you might also want to read this interesting piece.

Here are some details on how banks are utilising the cloud:

Bank of America has saved $2 billion yearly by constructing its cloud (on annual infrastructure savings). It assisted in reducing the company's servers from 200,000 to 70,000 and its data centres from 60 to 23.

As part of its focus on digital transformation, Wells Fargo is using MS Azure and has shifted critical business tasks, such as data centres, to the cloud.

The internal operations of Goldman Sachs have been transformed by the usage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) products, which range from automated digital forensics to digital supply chain and procurement.

Benefits of cloud computing in the banking Industry

In the banking industry, cloud computing has emerged as a driving force behind digital transformation, preparing institutions for the future. Hence, in order to benefit from cloud computing's reliable deployment and delivery strategy, any bank must be aware of its primary advantages.

Higher processing speeds are available thanks to cloud systems' ability to quickly and easily handle enormous amounts of data. It enables banks to accelerate the processing of transactions and lessen latency issues.

Centralized Data Repository: Cloud platforms make it possible to share data easily and securely while integrating various operational systems and corporate data. In order to facilitate integrated decision-making and swiftly address consumer issues, it creates centralised and connected data.

Data Security: In addition to having secure server configuration, cloud banking platforms are certified to adhere to national, regional, and worldwide regulations set forth by financial services regulators. To guarantee secure data transfers and prevent unwanted access, these regulations regulate information security management and risk management.

Disaster Recovery: Moving to the cloud has many advantages, but its effective disaster recovery with built-in redundancies is by far the most important. The cloud enables banks to streamline possibilities, satisfy client expectations, and operate at the speed of business by regaining access to actionable data in case of disruptive events or natural disasters. The financial world is moving much more quickly these days.

Access to a Robust API Ecosystem and Data Management Capabilities: With open banking, banks can adapt to the changing needs of their clients thanks to advanced analytics and the cloud API ecosystem. Banks and other financial institutions can enhance their cash and liquidity management and reconciliation effectiveness.

Better Customer Experience: Banks can provide access to financial services whenever and wherever they choose thanks to the cloud, which improves the client experience.

Reduced Costs: From a management and maintenance perspective, moving apps and data to the cloud gives the bank significant cost advantages. Furthermore, the pay-as-you-go pricing structure of public clouds makes it possible for financial institutions to make effective use of cloud services.

Adhering to Regulatory Compliance: Using cloud platforms, banks can manage and satisfy regulatory compliance obligations in accordance with local financial industry laws. It would include abiding by international laws and data protection standards.

Efficiency Gains: Cloud computing in banking enables financial services companies to streamline processes and increase efficiency. By linking customers and sellers on a single platform, payment processes can be made even simpler. This makes data tracking and transaction speed improvements.

Business continuity: Increased data protection, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery for financial enterprises are all possible with cloud computing in financial services, which can help banks and financial services companies. It offers a high level of redundancy and backup at a price that is significantly less than that of conventional managed systems.

Agility and Transformation: With the help of adaptable cloud-based operating models, financial firms can experience quicker development cycles for new products. The associated technology enables a quicker and more effective response to the requirements of contemporary banking clients. It enables companies to outsource non-critical activities like upkeep, software patches, and other computer-related problems. This aids financial companies in concentrating more on business expansion.

Cloud Computing Difficulties in the Banking Sector

Many financial firms are still cautious to use cloud computing technology despite its many advantages. Here are some of the barriers to bank cloud adoption and potential solutions:

Security

Data security is the key worry for banks considering cloud services. Banks lack visibility into authentication problems, credentials are compromised, and there is a danger of data breaches when sensitive banking data is held and processed by a third-party source.

Thankfully, well-known cloud service providers have improved their security capabilities. Be sure the cloud service provider you select has a strong identity management system and solid access control procedures in place. Database security and the application of data privacy protocols are also ensured by the cloud.

Performance

The performance of the business depends on the cloud platform after corporate data and apps are migrated there.

So, banks should search for cloud service providers with cutting-edge technologies before investing in cloud technology. The vendor's systems have an impact on how well BI tools and other cloud-based solutions perform. Due of this, it is crucial to confirm that the supplier has mechanisms in place to address issues as they arise.

Highly available

Systems used by banks must always be functional. In order to prevent frequent failures and unwelcome downtime, banks that rely on third-party services and cloud systems must be dependable and strong.

Banks can use tools provided by third parties to evaluate service effectiveness and have a solid plan in place to keep an eye on SLAs, consumption, performance, robustness, and the business' dependency on cloud services.

Compliance

Customer banking information must be kept domestically restricted, according to several banking regulators. This sensitive information shouldn't be mixed in with other data stored on shared databases.

Summary

People all over the world are fascinated by and paying attention to AI. However, through 2019, the rate of adoption of artificial intelligence in the commercial sphere has lagged behind the degree of enthusiasm. Even though most corporate leaders claim AI gives them a competitive edge, less than 20% of enterprises have reportedly used it as of late, according to several industry observers.

However, as 2020 approaches, we are observing an increase in both interest and the uptake of AI. A recent global poll that IBM commissioned confirms this uptick. More than 4,500 technology decision-makersAI Adoption on the Rise were surveyed for the study, From Roadblock to Scale: The Global Sprint Towards AI. The deployment of AI in the United States, Europe, and China was something we wanted to assess both now and in the future.

AI Adoption on the Rise

The Roadblocks to Scale survey's findings show that, despite the need for additional work, improvements in data management and discovery, talent development, and AI explainability are hastening the adoption of AI faster than many had anticipated.

For instance, 45% of respondents from large enterprises (1,000+ employees) claimed to have used AI, compared to 29% of respondents from small and medium-sized businesses (under 1,000 employees). These figures are much higher than what some market observers have previously predicted. The Executive Summary of the poll, which is available here, contains some of the more illuminating data points, including the following:

An Overview of the Numbers

Skills: The advantages of AI are still being resisted by significant barriers by businesses. Limited AI skills or understanding is cited by 37% of respondents as a barrier to successful AI adoption at their firm, closely followed by increased data complexity and siloed data (31%) and a lack of tools for constructing AI models (26%).

Trust: The deployment of AI is built on a foundation of trust. The ability to trust that their AI's output is fair, safe, and reliable is extremely or critically important to 78% of respondents globally across all nations questioned. Furthermore, 83% of respondents from around the world agreed that it is crucial to be able to explain how AI reached a judgment.

Data: As AI success is fueled by data, businesses now using AI technologies are more likely to use a hybrid cloud (38% adoption) or hybrid multicloud (17% adoption). And data is present on all clouds and in all places.

The Business World Is Affected by the AI Journey Based on our experiences and the findings of this study, we anticipate that corporations will implement AI across their entire company, either by creating/developing their own AI or by utilizing pre-made AI applications. For instance, 40% of respondents who are presently employing AI, according to the poll, indicated they are creating proof-of-concepts for certain AI-based or AI-assisted initiatives, and 40% are using pre-built AI applications, like chatbots and virtual agents.

Every day I witness clients become more and more excited. Just a couple of recent instances come to mind. LegalMation, a provider of legal software, has used IBM Watson and our natural language processing technology to assist lawyers by automating some of the most tedious litigation processes, such as speeding, for example.

Watson Studio and Watson Machine Learning are used by the international digital agency Wunderman Thompson Data to access, analyze, and train models on terabytes of data saved across its hybrid multicloud environment. Wunderman is utilizing IBM AutoAI to automate models for the analysis of literally tens of thousands of attributes from across the company's datasets as part of its collaboration with Watson Machine Learning.

Roadblocks to AI adoption have been a major concern when I consider the report's insights and my meetings with clients, which were both done by the company Morning Consult. They are the driving force behind our efforts to remove entry barriers and increase the usability of AI for businesses.