Elly Yates-Roberts |
This article was originally published in the Summer 2019 issue of The Record. Subscribe for FREE here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.
While the financial services industry has traditionally been reluctant to change, in today’s climate – with customer expectations at an all-time high – moving services such as data and application integration to the cloud may be the only way to compete with new entrants who are better prepared to attract and keep business.
Financial institutions can buy into the infrastructure of a secure, dedicated cloud service provider and gain the capacity to focus on growing their business. Cloud services, such as Microsoft Azure Integration Services using Logic Apps, free up time to analyse, review and react in a time when it has never been more important to do so. In addition, the cloud gives business process workloads instant access to a massive amount of capabilities and features, reducing overhead costs and improving system reliability and performance. With greater capacity focused on strategic business goals, cloud services have also been shown to lead to an increase in company morale and in the bottom line.
A recent customer of ours had considerable issues with its existing integration environment. Limited technology was impacting the ability to work efficiently. However, the effort to modernise it was overwhelming. It was clear that migrating integration workloads to the cloud would give it the edge it needed.
The customer needed to identify gaps, develop a new migration roadmap, migrate all workloads and determine the best way to deal with ongoing production issues – all without disrupting business. It received guidance on how to accomplish this in the Microsoft Azure cloud using a secure, highly available, strongly performing, and visible approach. This managed service approach freed up employee time and enabled greater flexibility in the workplace. Overall, the cloud-based solution was able to modernise more workloads than previously imagined and, in a matter of just a few months, was able to significantly streamline the way the company did business – leaving more time for employees to do their job, the company to strategise and innovate, and the business to grow and evolve.
The integration of new applications in the cloud can happen in a matter of weeks rather than years. Financial institutions can leverage standards such as SWIFT and Microsoft products such as BizTalk, Host Integration Server and Azure Cloud Integration to significantly lower the overall cost of their integration solution. Solutions can run on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration – and save customers money by speeding the delivery of solutions to them. Cloud solutions help financial institutions attract and retain customers, enable governance and compliance and maintain a healthy and reactive business in a highly competitive and evolving technical landscape.
Javier Mariscal is president at TwoConnect