Banking In The Cloud – Moulding The Future Of Financial Services

The growing use of cloud across industries has prompted banks to deploy this digital technology, as they perceive it to be more cost-effective and flexible than on-premises hardware and equipment. However, cloud’s value in the BFSI sector extends beyond its more commonly discussed benefits. From synchronising the entire organisation to optimising risk management, customer support and data analytics, the cloud is now an essential feature for accelerating banking efficiency.

The banks of the 2030s will be remarkably different from what we see today. The industry has been gradually adapting to new customer expectations, evolving technologies and innovative business models. A key indicator of the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector’s shifting landscape is the use of the cloud that is taking centre stage.

Banks and fintech leaders now acknowledge that the cloud is an indispensable tool for BFSI enterprises to store their data and applications. It is also the most flexible route to access advanced software and telephony solutions from any location.

The top public cloud platforms today offer multiple ‘products-as-a-service’ models. By using such plug and play applications, banks can innovate their operations for higher revenue generation, improved customer insights and reduced costs. The cloud also allows them to offer market-relevant products in less time and monetise business data assets effectively.

Let us delve further into the specific ways that banks can use to extract more value in their operations:

Optimising IT security

Cybercrime prevention is a crucial requirement for all businesses. For banks that hold public money and are governed by stringent government regulations, it is even more critical to deploy cybersecurity measures.

Leading cloud providers use advanced network technologies and topologies to keep their customers’ information, identities, applications, and data protected against cyber threats. Generally, cloud storage is more secure than physical servers and other hardware-based data storage systems.

To add an extra layer of security in this environment, TTBS offers EZ Cloud Connect. The solution allows banks to establish a seamless private connection to leading cloud services such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, MS Azure, Oracle Cloud Services, and IBM Softlayer.

The service employs MPLS technology to create a secure fortress within which the bank gets its exclusive network for data storage and application usage. A service level agreement (SLA) guarantees predictable performance and safety from cyber-attacks.

TTBS also offers cyber security systems that help banks raise the levels of safeguarding their data and applications against the online threats targeting the BFSI industry. Our solutions include:

Email Security – Using FirstWave Cloud Technology’s ESPTM email software technology, Cisco-based ESA/IronPort, and AMP technologies, our Email Security protects email accounts configured on local onpremises servers as also those underpinned by Microsoft Exchange, Office 365 and other customarily used platforms

Besides defending emails against known viruses and malware, it prevents threats such as spear phishing, whaling, typo domain, and spoofing attacks. Spam removal is automated. Email Security also provides reports on eliminated treats and works without slowing down any device.

Endpoint Security – The computers, tablets, smartphones, printers, and scanners connected via the internet in a bank's network are critical for data sharing. TTBS Endpoint Security secures them from malware, phishing, and pharming attacks by guarding their endpoints. It has web filtering, email filtering, antivirus, and firewall features to keep local area networks and personal devices immune against any cyber threat.

With a multitenant architecture Endpoint Security offers a hassle-free installation experience and can work with all Windows and iOS-based devices.

Multifactor Authentication – For the banks that want to move beyond traditional password methods in protecting their databases, TTBS has its Multifactor Authentication (MFA) solution. It provides security against spear-phishing, pharming and the relaying or spraying attacks that break into private accounts. By asking for user authentication after the password entries, MFA's zero-trust security augments digital accounts' security layers, blocking all malicious attempts to access confidential data.

With TTBS MFA banks can choose their own authentication methods and secure remote access to files without a device agent. It has a user-friendly single sign-on (SSO) for authorised users and is easily scalable.

Virtual Firewall – To provide more reliable security than a regular firewall, the TTBS Virtual Firewall is based on advanced threat intelligence. It offers round-the-clock device and network protection without obstructing normal workflows.

Banks can tailor its security controls according to their requirements and counter cyber-attacks using deeppacket inspection. Out Virtual Firewall is easy to configure, and its admin portal gives complete data of all blocked threats.

Web Security – Banks use the internet daily and need to keep their devices secure even if there is an accidental click on a malicious link. TTBS Web Security has been devised for such purposes. It eliminates online threats before they touch a network’s endpoints. Web Security can decipher the intent of URLs, web requests and attached files to instantly allow, block or route them for deeper scrutiny depending on their nature.

By deploying TTBS Web Security, banks can also scrutinize their remote employees’ online activities and ensure that the devices used for work are not infected. This cloud-based solution allows IT teams to manage security policies efficiently and it provides analytical reports on threats checked.

Synchronising the organisation

The digital technologies that bank employees use for collaboration are still limited to basic channels such as emails, voice calls and instant messaging. While such techniques help in quick communication, they are largely disjointed from the information flows and updates vital to business processes. Such lack of integration leads to time-consuming back-and-forth messaging on the file status, hand-offs, and inquiries, impairing employee productivity.

By sharing data in a common cloud-based resource – such as the Document Management System devised by Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS) – banks can integrate their business units to drive better decisions and solve customer issues in lesser time.

Cloud builds common and connected data sets to enable deeper analytics and insights based on collective intelligence. In comparison to storage systems that are restricted to on-premises servers or individual devices, shared cloud platforms improve collaboration and provide employees with real-time details on file updates to work more productively.

Unleashing business innovation

The cloud helps banks to improve customer experiences by offering new services with speed and ease. The technology has also enabled these organisations to become more agile at capturing leads fruitfully. Additionally, cloud adaptation will introduce critical capabilities to access and process big data more prolifically. Other technologies that are handy to leverage with the cloud include machine learning, IoT, automation, AR/VR, image recognition and natural language processing.

By deploying such tools and capabilities through the cloud, banks can increase their revenue, trim down costs, make operations more consistent, and drive stronger employee satisfaction.

Introducing better ways of working

Cloud technology has the potential to enhance the productivity of existing bank processes. It also makes customer interactions more engaging.

Smartflo – a cloud-centric telephony solution developed by TTBS – is a platform that addresses the challenges of hardware-oriented traditional contact centres. It lets customer service agents receive and make calls from anywhere – this gives banks the flexibility of deploying remote work practices that have gained more traction after the COVID outbreak

With its CRM integration, Smartflo helps employees to understand and resolve customer concerns faster. The system has sentiment analysis features and word-cloud powered analytics to provide a personalised experience to customers on each call.

Banks can scale their contact centre operations in no time with Smartflo. It gives them better control over call management, quality analysis and the security of their telephonic processes. TTBS takes responsibility for all upgrades and maintenance to help organisations stay attuned to the evolving cloud technology.

Building resilient operations

As the COVID experience has shown, cloud technology expedites disaster recovery and promotes business continuity. To keep their operations resilient against natural and human-made disruptions, banks must ensure secure accessibility across three vital areas:

• Applications and servers
• Database and directories
• User desktops and files

By storing or replicating such assets in the cloud, any BFSI organisation can improve its ability for quicker responses to outages, natural disasters, data breaches and other contingencies. While choosing a cloud service provider, banks must also ensure that the resources stored/backed up in such a platform are encrypted and/or provides secure access only to authorised users.

Cost and service efficiencies

When banks make the cloud a key ingredient of the IT infrastructure, they can cut down on the heavy capital expenditure and benefit from a pay-as-you-go model. Banks can also capture the cost efficacies of dynamic cloud pricing.

Cloud platforms facilitate quicker responses to market shifts and changes in resource allocation. While using the cloud, banks do not need to architect new models for each new service they launch. Instead, they can use APIs to harness pre-existing apps and roll out new solutions with lower overhead costs. This, in turn, helps them to scale vertically and horizontally with more agility.

Even though convenience and ease of interaction drive many tech-savvy millennials to innovative fintech products, their long-drawn trust in traditional banking systems remains largely unaffected. Banks can build upon this trust to improve their technological capabilities and become more competitive in the BFSI industry. Adopting cloud technology is the first step to address the changing expectations of digital demographics.

Wish to know more about how your bank can leverage cloud technology as a catalyst for future-ready transformation? Simply contact the TTBS team at 1800-266-1800.