FINAL WORD
While Pepper may be a fun way to engage with customers , there are plenty of other use cases for Edge Computing in banking and financial services . Security and fraud detection / prevention is critically important as unauthorised financial fraud losses across payment cards , remote banking and cheques totalled £ 360.8 million in H1 2022 , according to UK Finance . There is also a significant regulatory burden on modern banking and Edge Computing enables real-time monitoring of compliance to those regulations required by law .
Challenges ahead
Pascal Holt , Director of Marketing , Iceotope errors rates and better resource utilisation ; and uncover new and previously unrealised opportunities
based on an improved ability to process and generate insights from vast troves of data ’.
A more personal customer experience
Technologies like AI , Machine Learning ( ML ) and Natural Language Processing ( NLP ) utilise the cloud but require Edge Computing for processing data closer to where the data is generated . For traditional retail banking firms , that creates an opportunity to improve customer service while reducing costs . Going back to our ‘ push ’ vs ‘ pull ’ discussion , retail banking has historically been very much in the push category . All customers are given the same product information , regardless of whether it is relevant to them or not . With Edge Computing , the data gathered helps the bank better understand individual financial needs enabling them to customise advertising and product offerings accordingly .
HSBC is taking this type of customisation one step further with Pepper , a semi-humanoid robot , operating in several branches in the US . Pepper uses NLP to interact with customers . The data intelligence needed for Pepper to successfully and beneficially engage with human customers also requires real-time , low-latency analysis of large quantities of data . All of which is easily served through Edge Computing .
McKinsey & Company , estimates that AI technologies could potentially deliver up to US $ 1 trillion of additional value each year for global banks .
Many banks have net zero targets they are trying to achieve by 2030 . The Big Six US banks have announced a variation of carbon neutral and net zero plans in the last two years . In addition , the UNbacked Net Zero Banking Alliance is bringing together more than 100 banks from 40 countries to align their lending and investment portfolios with net-zero emissions by 2050 .
From a data centre perspective – whether that be in the cloud , on-premises , in colocation , or at the Edge – technology solutions are available today to help achieve these goals . Advanced liquid cooling solutions can achieve a 1.03 PUE or below . Precision immersion liquid cooling , for example , captures > 95 % of server heat inside the chassis , significantly reducing energy costs and emissions associated with server cooling . Water consumption is negligible as little to no mechanical chilling is required .
Beyond sustainability , there are some unique considerations for Edge Computing . IT computing loads are usually required to operate reliably in locations not built specifically for IT equipment . Whether it is indoors around people or in harsh external environments , the equipment needs to be purpose built for Edge Computing . With precision immersion liquid cooling , the sealed chassis form factor provides the same kind of protected environmentally controlled conditions found in a data centre facility . It is also designed to withstand all types of IT environments with minimal impact on its local surroundings .
Edge Computing is just starting to make an impact on the financial services industry . As technology continues to improve customer service and increase competitive advantages , it will become more important than ever for organisations to have the right solutions in place to enable those opportunities . Many of these applications are pushing the limits of existing technologies and opening the door to new alternatives . Now is the time for organisations to take a bold step and embrace these new technologies . p
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