Cloud Computing for Financial Industry

The financial industry is like any other industry in exploring the possibilities and benefits of cloud computing. However, some experts within the sector are calling for regulations to ensure organizations have the proper cloud security solutions in place to protect sensitive information. According to a recent Wall Street & Technology report, these wheels are already in motion. The industry news provider stated that the banking association BIDS, along with the Cloud Security Alliance and the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, have taken preliminary steps for drafting regulation standards. The industries have to consider information security and cloud computing with regulators analysing the acceptable behaviour.

For financial institutions, sooner would certainly be better, as these types of organizations are being encouraged to explore the use of the cloud. According to a separate Wall Street & Technology report, the technology can provide numerous benefits for banks and other financial services providers. For example, these organizations could utilize the cloud to improve customer relationship management, while also using virtual desktops to improve the efficiency of their computing processes, the earlier report stated. Even then, experts told the news provider that cloud use can’t go unchecked as data can be easily moved in the cloud and it’s imperative to know where it is at all times.

 As cloud computing becoming the buzzword in technology circles today. It is sometimes compared with the virtualization of computing power, applications and storage, thought of as a model to deploy pay-as-you-go web services or perceived to be similar to grid computing. Cloud computing shares characteristics with all of these technology paradigms, yet it has more to offer. Cloud computing adoption continues to gain momentum across a broad range of industries including financial services. Once organisations manage to filter through the noise surrounding the cloud, there are actually some very pragmatic ways in which the IT organisations of banks, insurers and similar institutions can leverage cloud computing to directly benefit their daily operations and most significantly, have an impact on the business bottom line. These gains can be achieved without incurring large capital expenditure or exposing sensitive business data.

References:

1. Cloud Standards Customer Council, http://www.cloudstandardscustomercouncil.org

2. Cloud Security Alliance, http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org

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