Intelligent Data Centres Issue 12 | Page 45

FEATURE FEATURE AMONG ALL THE CONFUSING COMMENTARY SURROUNDING THE HYBRID CLOUD, ONE THING IS CLEAR – ORGANISATIONS MUST STAY AHEAD OF THE DATA GAME. 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. www.intelligentdatacentres.com 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 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 ultimately relies on organisations addressing perennial challenges first and foremost. These challenges include breaking down data silos and addressing the science skills shortage to change cultural thinking around using data and analytics in everything the business does. Issue 12 45