Accelerating the Journey to the Cloud

Cloud strategies for banks, insurance companies and asset managers - how financial companies benefit. New technologies such as data & analytics, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are fundamentally changing the financial sector. How can companies in these sectors realign themselves and master the digital transformation?

Public cloud services offer the important, necessary flexibility, agility and innovation that financial companies need today.

According to the Cloud Monitor 2024 (German-language publication),  more and more companies are adopting a cloud-first strategy. And that's not all. The financial market is expected to catch up with the overall market in terms of the maturity and usage level of cloud computing over the next few years. Eight out of ten financial service providers already use cloud-based technologies.

The advantages of the cloud are obvious: cloud-based applications offer unprecedented flexibility, performance and reliability. In particular, applications in which IT resources are used to a high degree with simultaneous fluctuations benefit from this. These include, among others:

• Risk model calculation and portfolio models
• Early warning systems (e.g. for money laundering prevention)
• CRM analyses
• Analysis and decision support for claims settlement
• ESG data analyses

Cloud technology also enables significantly faster software development with shorter testing and development phases. The cloud can also provide support and fully exploit its strengths in new business areas that are growing enormously or whose growth forecasts are not yet precisely known. The cloud therefore creates a good basis for further developing your own business model with new offerings for customers.

However, banks, insurance companies and capital management companies have a wide range of requirements for their own IT. This is because cloud services must be integrated precisely. Regulatory requirements and laws must be implemented in three areas in particular:

• Regulatory requirements: These include the Minimum Requirements for Risk Management (MaRisk); for insurance companies (MaGO); for capital management companies (KAMaRisk) and the Ordinance on Strengthening Digital Operational Resilience (DORA).

• IT security: Financial institutions must meet minimum information security requirements for cloud services, such as the BSI C5 criteria catalog and the control framework (Cloud Controls Matrix) of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).

• Data protection: The requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must be consistently implemented.

Public cloud providers have now responded to the increased demand from the financial sector and offer cloud services that are geared towards financial and insurance institutions.

Financial companies benefit in many ways from a successful cloud transformation. Cost-effective, fast, flexible and up-to-the-minute IT is an advantage. In addition, many application solutions are increasingly being developed by service providers in the cloud and are only offered from there. In addition, innovative and new services (such as artificial intelligence) are primarily sourced from the public cloud. The company's own cloud strategy should therefore be an important item on the agenda of every Chief Information Officer (CIO).

Our cloud experts provide you with comprehensive support for your cloud transformation. We accompany you step by step: from the development of a cloud strategy to cloud governance structures and technical implementation. Proper implementation of compliance and security is important to us at every stage. Because we want your journey to the cloud to be both secure and efficient.

Have we piqued your interest? Get in touch with us!