INDUSTRY WATCH
THE USE OF DATA IN
INDUSTRY HAS NOW
BECOME THE MOST
VALUABLE ASSET IN
DRIVING TANGIBLE
BUSINESS SUCCESS.
R
egardless of the sector you work
in, you’ll no doubt have heard
the chatter around the hybrid
cloud. However, like many of your peers,
you’ve probably got more questions than
answers. What is hybrid cloud? Which
way should my business jump? How do I
know what to think about when selecting
cloud strategies? Can I be guaranteed
that it’ll prime my business for the future?
Among all the confusing commentary
surrounding the hybrid cloud, one thing
is clear – organisations must stay ahead
of the data game. The use of data in
industry has now become the most
valuable asset in driving tangible business
success. In fact, according to Forrester,
insights businesses are growing on
average more than 30% annually.
Nowhere is this truer than in the financial
services sector where heightened
customer expectations mean the
demand for fast information is higher
than ever. With security and compliance
front and centre, those who aren’t paying
attention to the possibilities of the hybrid
cloud could be losing out. Or worse, could
be kept out of the game altogether.
Staying competitive
Growth in the financial sector has been
unprecedented in the last five years, as
has the pace of Digital Transformation.
This growth has meant that the
FinTech landscape has quickly become
synonymous with data analytics. FinTech
start-ups are changing the way we
think about banking. For consumers,
financial firms must provide their services
in the most timely, satisfying and
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straightforward way, across any platform.
Long gone are the days of physical
banking where consumers need to wait
for a bank’s 9am–5pm opening hours.
Against this backdrop, the hybrid model
offers a level of flexibility that is hugely
appealing to financial services firms –
mainly as it incorporates many of their
core applications, which are often run
on-premises. It allows these businesses
to stagger the migration of their
applications to a new cloud architecture,
making it more achievable in both the
short and long term, while allowing them
to mitigate any risk involved during the
transition period. From there, it helps
to maximise the potential of existing
investments and deliver incremental
business value effectively.
As financial organisations increase their
adoption of technologies like AI and
Machine Learning, it becomes more
critical for them to invest in a robust
data infrastructure. Doing so means they
can access all forms of data at scale
while integrating and leveraging data
science languages. Also, it allows these
businesses to discover, learn and optimise
insights that result in more efficient
business decision making.
Graduating to the cloud
Understandably, transforming from legacy
infrastructure to one with a digital-first
focus is no easy task. The financial sector is
particularly delicate as it’s highly regulated
and also has data security, privacy and
protection to consider. However, this
shouldn’t stop businesses embarking on
their journey to the hybrid cloud. Success
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