With the introduction of cloud computing, things have become easier and much accessible in banking and financial sectors. Cloud computing is a hybrid technology that helps in storing and recovering huge data of the banks, besides cost reduction and better customer services

Cloud computing is a hybrid technology of computing various services like software, servers, storage, databases, networking, analytics and many more over the Internet. It can be easily deployed and integrated with all the services of the banking system, which decreases the time and effort of the bankers and customers. It has made many things easier in banking and finance sectors like interoperability, 24×7 access, secure storage, etc. Using software or banking apps from any device from any location has become seamless.

On-demand cloud services are delivered with a pay-as-you-go billing model that leads to significant cost reduction. Cloud computing helps in storing, backup and recovering huge data of the banks. It has enabled the banks to focus more on the customer-centric model and digitalising trading and wealth. Every information stored in the cloud is safe with end-to-end protection.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are the most popular software in cloud computing. These software allow the banks and financial institutions to secure the data and provide better support to the customers. Some cloud providers who provide hybrid cloud computing servers to the companies are Amazon Web Services, Google Virtual Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Aliyun, and IBM Bluemix.

Banks can access the cloud any time as required, which means they can utilise it more flexibly. This increases the banks’ ability to relieve their staff from the administration of IT infrastructure and reallocate resources for more innovative banking solutions. During peak customer demand hours, the cloud can allow banks to scale computing resources according to the requirements of the consumers. The scalability of the cloud means it can scan potentially thousands of transactions per second to improve security against fraud and money laundering.

In a bid to ensure secure transactions and smooth customer experience, banks need 100 per cent uptime. But in-house IT systems need periodic maintenance during which it becomes difficult to provide continued service. Cloud computing offers server availability of 99.999%, even during maintenance, to do transactions at any time of the day or night. The hosting of mobile and web apps also ensures better speed for users.

The confidentiality and security of financial information of customers and internal company data are of prime importance. Cloud computing is used to ensure that payments are processed securely without any discrepancies. It is engineered to offer multiple layers of safety and can pinpoint fraudulent transactions in real-time without compromising user experience.

Cloud computing is changing the way consumers interact with banks; online fund transfer, digital wallets, payment gateways, and secure online payments are among the best examples of cloud computing service. All the basic services such as net banking, mobile banking, KYC, and card management are managed aptly with cloud platforms.
With cloud providers offering pay-as-you-use models that allow their usage and payment only for the capacity being used, adoption of cloud computing can lead to significant savings for banks. Banks can divert those funds to develop other financial products to improve their customers’ experience.

Most prominent cloud providers offer sophisticated encryption and end-to-end data protection solutions to help secure their customers’ data. Cloud computing architectures offer speed as well as flexibility, which ultimately make data safer both internally and externally.

When data is secure and can be accessed at any time, anywhere, by both customers and employees without the down-time restrictions imposed by traditional infrastructure, banks can improve operations as well as user experience.

Cloud computing can transform the banking and financial sector, offering support to the industrial revolution 4.0. The technology has been implemented to keep security, regulatory and compliance and business alignment in effect. Experts across the banking sector believe that cloud-based services should be deployed only through trusted cloud service providers.

—Deepshikha Shukla