FEATURE FEATURE

For traditional retail banks , Edge Computing creates opportunities to improve customer service , reduce costs and ensure regulatory compliance . It also enables banks to personalise their services by processing data quickly and effectively . These real-time analytics translate to bespoke value-added services that provide the customer with exactly what they need .

High frequency trading firms utilise Edge Computing to maximise profits on high-volume , low-margin trades . Edge Computing brings computation and data storage closer to where the data is being generated . Reducing latency issues can help a firm gain a competitive advantage in high-speed order execution .

Defining the Edge

The Edge is the physical location where things and people connect with the networked digital world and it ’ s changing the way we process data . We are moving towards a more interactive world . Data is no longer merely being pushed towards us on our devices , but rather it ’ s being collected or ‘ pulled ’ from our interactions with Internet-of-Things ( IoT ) sensors we encounter in our daily lives .

Pascal Holt , Director of Marketing , Iceotope

As a result , the data centre is rapidly changing to no longer be the centre of data . The need to handle , manipulate , communicate , store and retrieve data efficiently is moving processing capacity closer to the user than ever before . This phenomenon is known as ‘ data gravity ’ and draws the physical location of digital infrastructure closer to the data source itself . This creates a new set of challenges – and opportunities – for financial service organisations .

Changing the competitive landscape

Financial firms are not only adopting cloud-based technology to deliver a much better service for their clients , but they are doing so to remain relevant . Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) is one such example . For processing simple , repetitive tasks or extracting insights from large amounts of data , AI applications , in combination with Edge Computing , have the power to create significant competitive advantages .

Management consulting firm , McKinsey & Company , estimates that AI technologies could potentially deliver up to US $ 1 trillion of additional value each year for global banks . They found that AI could ‘ help boost revenues through increased personalisation of services to customers ( and employees ); lower costs through efficiencies generated by higher automation , reduced 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 semihumanoid 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 .

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 realtime monitoring of compliance to those regulations required by law .

Challenges ahead

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 UN-backed 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 . www . intelligentdatacentres . com

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