Discover how a hybrid cloud strategy can deliver value for FSI decision makers

[_Marcus_Bonner_]

Financial services organizations need agile IT to help them navigate the unprecedented pace of disruption and transformation  

The past few years have seen financial services industry (FSIs) navigate extraordinary change. They have also had to find their way through economic and geopolitical instability, constant disruption, changing customer expectations, ESG, and security regulations. Whilst they build bridges that cross the digital divide without losing momentum or market traction, as agile, young fintechs and non-financial companies step into the financial space. Within this landscape incumbent institutions must find the right technologies to help them remain relevant and competitive. 

CIOs need to adopt new strategies and technology solutions to drive their digital transformation that streamline customer experiences, manage cybersecurity, whilst maintaining a laser focus on industry compliance and ESG. Every hybrid cloud strategy and implementation is different. There is no right way for organizations to complete their transformation and no ideal pace at which to move. However, there are best practices for adopting a hybrid cloud strategy, and these are invaluable to getting it just right for each business. The very fluidity of hybrid cloud makes it more agile to adapt to unanticipated changes that can arise in any business.

Why FSIs should be focusing on this transformation: 

1. The marketplace demands it—there are fresher and faster solutions that can erode their market share. 
2. The availability of new digital tools that enhance customer experiences and automate processes that support core financial applications. 
3. FSI’s spend billions on solutions designed to battle fraud and security threats to avoid reputation and revenue losses 
4. The data deluge is outpacing the ability of FSI’s to process, monetize, and extract value.

This is where HPE GreenLake delivers – it enables FSI organizations to create time and value through a comprehensively managed, pay per-use hybrid cloud solution that addresses security, data privacy, and regulatory concerns. 

Hybrid Cloud 

The hybrid cloud architecture provided by HPE GreenLake delivers flexibility, reliability and cost efficiency, allowing FSIs to digitally transform at scale, while remaining in control of costs and strategy. This fully managed, pay-as-you-go hybrid cloud solution addresses the key FSI pain points of security, privacy and regulatory concerns, while enabling self-service capabilities that improve operations and developer experiences. 

It is designed to support the FSIs move from legacy infrastructure to a more agile, hybrid cloud environment that provides peace-of-mind as capacity planning can be actioned ahead of demand. Allowing FSIs to focus on the bottom line while innovating and delivering value to customers. HPE GreenLake brings a hybrid cloud experience to current and future workloads that cannot or will not move to the public cloud in a scalable, pay-per-use model that resides at the financial institution’s location in the data center, in a colocation facility, or at the edge. 

Success for the FSI lies in: 

• Hybrid Cloud that delivers cost savings, increased agility and enhanced efficiencies. 
• The ability to use data to understand patterns, produce more relevant products that enhance customer experiences that deepen customer relationships, and loyalty.
• Robust, zero trust security with privileged access and vulnerability management
• Sustainable business practices, with credentials that meet compliance requirements and customer’s expectations. 

Using hybrid cloud to control and harness data 

Data at the edge continues to explode in size and scale, generated by billions of devices of increasing complexity and power. FSI’s are grappling with how to deal with this abundance of data from the edge to cloud, how to harness it and control it without it harming the business. How do you access all the data in silos and use it to generate business value? And to do so in a way that is efficient, scalable and secure. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) delivered as-a-service with HPE GreenLake, organizations can measurably improve decision-making, fraud detection, identity verification and automated conversational capabilities. FSIs can turn data into intelligence and insights that result in smart decisions that drive inovation and business value.

FSIs can discover a single source of truth from the data that keeps them firmly in the digital driver’s seat. 

Security and business resilience  

With the rising tide of cyber risk alongside sophisticated attacks, ransomware, remote working and compliance mandates there is little doubt that security and resilience remain critical priorities for the FSI’s. One of the key aspects of improving security is understanding that you can (and should) have different security strategies. On-premises data can be locked down with an incredible level of security, whereas cloud-stored workloads potentially have their security outsourced to a third-party provider.

Your strategy should include MDR (Management, Detection and Response) solutions to make sure you are covered both on-prem and in the cloud to maximize the protective shield around your data. Embedded AI analytics within your IT infrastructure and software will ensure the ever-on real-time detection and remediation of security threats.

Companies need to protect, recover and move data across applications to ensure continuous availability across multi-cloud environments to ensure the consistent delivery of services to customers.Moving data has an associated cost and risk. Choosing a provider that doesn’t impose egress charges for moving your data is key to reigning in costs, as is only paying for the storage you use, which means you reduce overprovisioning costs whilst helping meet your ESG goals. FSI’s need to embed resilience into all aspects of their operations, while ensuring compliance and governance protocols are upheld to mitigate risk.

With HPE Greenlake these safeguards are in place to maximize your organization's resilience to the rising tide of threats. Additionally, disaster and backup recovery data services are designed to assist FSIs eliminate data silos, reduce cost and complexity, and improve performance.   

Advance your sustainable future  

Leading organizations are embracing sustainability as part of their next-gen business models. And by aligning technology strategies with sustainability initiatives, organizations across industries are growing stronger, more resilient, and better placed to accelerate data-first transformation. Accenture Research found that enterprises linking digital and sustainable transformation are 2.5x more likely to be among tomorrow’s strongest-performing businesses—a concept referred to as the twin transformers.

Legacy infrastructure and antiquated software code are inefficient, energy hungry, inflexible, expensive to run and complex to manage. FSIs can see the benefits of being more sustainable, but often there is confusion around where to start. The process can seem daunting.  

The HPE GreenLake hybrid cloud model provides improved price-per-performance alongside transformative value from data, while still delivering on ESG goals. The new Sustainability Dashboard on the HPE GreenLake platform provides FSIs with a holistic view of their energy profile thanks to exceptional real-time visibility, monitoring and management of their IT energy consumption. HPE GreenLake can reduce carbon emissions by and has a proven track record in helping companies manage their carbon footprints and achieve their sustainability goals. What’s more, HPE helps maximize value across the asset lifecycle, by engaging in the circular economy.

The HPE approach to IT efficiency includes:

• Energy efficiency Delivering an optimum level of compute, storage, and connectivity with the lowest energy input possible
• Equipment efficiency. Increasing IT processing power and storage capabilities with fewer IT assets
• Resource efficiency Engineering products to work efficiently while requiring the least amount of support, staff, and equipment for power conversion, cooling, and resiliency
• Software efficiency Writing efficient code and using intelligent software to automate environments, drive efficiencies, and improve management practices
• Data efficiency. Collecting, analyzing, and storing only the data needed for business insights with archival decisions that seek to lower carbon implications

The Value of HPE  

HPE Greenlake delivers the hybrid cloud experience that FSI’s need to reimagine their financial products and services, while providing frictionless digital experiences within an ecosystem that’s secure, resilient and compliant. 

It is a modern, cloud experience that meets the FSI at the point of critical need and delivers value where the FSI needs it most. HPE GreenLake offers a breadth of solutions (70+) that meets the CIO at the point of need and provides the flexibility, reliability and cost efficiency that CIOs expect from a true hybrid cloud.

Marcus Bonner
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

twitter.com/HPE_UKI
linkedin.com/company/hewlett-packard-enterprise
hpe.com/uk