With all of the talk about ‘the cloud’, some of us started to wonder if data centres even exist anymore.
Some players have held hope that ‘the cloud’ would solve all problems - but this is not proving to be the case. For financial services organisations in particular, an on premises data centre can be perceived as an inhibitor.
NEXTDC’s (ASX:NXT) Chief Customer and Commercial Officer David Dzienciol suggests that although financial services organisations generally aren’t building their own data centres anymore, they are seeking to unlock capital that may be tied up in existing data centres.
“We’re seeing a significant amount of FSI organisations leverage colocation facilities to help them unlock capital that may be tied up in data centres or properties they own and invested in many years ago. Unlocking capital is an interesting dynamic because it allows the organisation to reinvest this capital into customers, hence creating their own value streams”, David Dzienciol said in a recent panel discussion on The Reboot Show.
Dzienciol also highlighted the growing trend towards Hybrid Cloud amongst the financial services industry “We’re seeing a strong shift to Hybrid Cloud because it provides resilience and speed - allowing organisations to get products to market much quicker”.
For established players in the financial services industry it’s been a challenge to rapidly modernise digital infrastructure as they strive to keep pace with new and emerging fintech startups.
“We’re seeing new companies become big and important players in the market. We’ve seen digital capability really launch businesses into extremely great growth - because of their understanding of how digital infrastructure is going to play a role in helping them achieve their ambitions”, Luke Stow.
The banking sector, as a segment of the financial services industry, has always had robust security requirements - not surprising when you manage the financial interests of millions of people and entities.
Although modernisation of digital infrastructure can fundamentally re-shape the architecture of an organisation, and its respective security posture, which easily raises risk concerns for financial services organisations, ANZ banking executive Alicia Aitken says that risk can not be avoided if your organisation is striving to achieve faster whilst preserving the reputation of your information and interactions.
“There’s inherent risk in every complex project - it’s not about avoiding risk , it’s about meeting it head on with eyes wide open”, Alicia Aitken.
Aitken spotlights that the increasingly engaged consumer is going to continue to drive greater demands of financial services organisations.
“The challenge we’re facing is how do we meet our customers where they’re at, in terms of products and services they want, and then keep up with their changing and evolving needs. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for us. Understanding how we can do this faster and safely is a question I’m asking myself all the time”, says Aitken.
With fintech startups charging at the traditional and established financial services sector with the ambition of innovating the way consumers access, interact with and benefit from financial products and services, there’s no denying that established players are striving to understand how best to gain from new and emerging technologies and capabilities.
Aitken says scalability is the key for all players in the financial services industry and calls out the opportunity for fintech startups and established players to compose innovative ways to work together.
“I’ve never been a big fan of compromise - for me the whole fintech conversation is a great opportunity to use the word “and” instead of “or”. It’s all about optionality and there’s no 1 right solution anymore. Only putting one option on the table always makes me suspicious”, Aitken.