AmericanBanker.com reports that a recent survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicates that 71 percent of financial service executives intend to invest more in cloud computing this year, an increase of 18 percent from 2012. Another 50 percent intend to invest in private cloud infrastructure, including virtualized storage and network equipment.
The reason for the increase is greater security and reliability of the cloud environment by cloud vendors. With encryption of data at rest and in transit, the enterprise cloud is secure enough to support confidential financial data and mission-critical applications, vital to the health of a financial company. For those outsourcing their IT, 64 percent responded that they viewed data security as an extremely serious risk to their organization.
Outsourced Cloud Risks; Source: PwC
When it came to the three most important reasons for choosing an external private cloud service provider for their IT infrastructure, financial executives responded:
- Access superior technical skills to satisfy new requirement
- Faster delivery of IT solutions for business requirement
- Reduce total cost of IT department
Why Use a Private Cloud Service Provider; Source: PwC
With an outsourced cloud service provider, their investment is in their people, critical infrastructure and up-to-date technology to provide enterprise-class, fast-performing clouds. The financial industry is not in the IT industry – by outsourcing their IT, they can focus on their business needs separate from the demands of operating a data center.
Similarly, with the private cloud, an outsourced IT vendor can provide faster deployment of new servers whenever the demand of the financial industry requires more support. Outsourcing to a private cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider also eliminates the upfront capital of building and maintaining a data center, and hiring certified staff with the latest technical knowledge.
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As a Gartner market analysis reported earlier this year, cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) spending is anticipated to exceed $72 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42 percent. Compared to other cloud service markets, including platform as a service (PaaS), business process as a service (BPaaS), and software as a service (SaaS), IaaS is the fastest-growing segment.
