The financial services (FinServ) industry is under enormous pressure to provide more innovative solutions to increasingly digital consumers. Not only are customers conducting transactions online and through mobile devices, but they also have a ton of services like Square or PayPal to choose from. In short, financial services organizations need to be agile and flexible enough to meet the demands of more technical and impatient customers. That means that they can’t be wasting valuable time and resources running traditional and clunky IT on the backend. A great place to start on this journey is by deploying cloud desktops.
4 ways FinServ companies benefit from cloud desktops
Folks who have already worked with traditional virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) can tell you from experience that deploying VDI on-premises is extremely expensive and complex. It requires a massive upfront investment and an army of certified engineers to deploy and manage. That’s why more and more companies are moving to the cloud. The numbers are quite clear on this too. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the cloud-based VDI market is expected to reach $10.15 billion by 2023, growing annually at a CAGR of 16.5%. Let’s dig into some of the other reasons why FinServ companies in particular need to make the switch to the cloud.
- Security – FinServ companies constantly deal with highly sensitive customer information. Because of this, the industry is also the most targeted by cyber criminals. According to Accenture, the number of security breaches in FinServ averages 125, costing the industry $18.28 million per year. With cloud VDI, sensitive data is stored centrally in highly secured and redundant cloud data centers, not on vulnerable end points. Google Cloud, for example, provides top-of-the-line security at every point in the stack, and is run by over 750 security experts that can ensure better security than companies could ever do in-house.
- Compliance – Being one of the most highly regulated industries, FinServ companies are under a tremendous amount of pressure to ensure that compliance mandates are met. Further, rules and regulations vary from country to country making it even more difficult to comply when doing business globally. Google Cloud’s global network of data centers are highly compliant, relieving FinServ organizations from the very real and potentially devastating effects of failing to comply with increasingly complex regulatory requirements.
- Mobility – It’s no secret that today’s workforce is becoming more mobile, and it’s no different in the FinServ industry. Employees have come to expect to be able to access data and applications from anywhere, at any time and from whatever device they choose. And, happy employees are more productive in the long run. Cloud-based virtual desktops, powered by an automation and orchestration solution like itopia Cloud Automation Stack (CAS), enables organizations to provide the mobile or remote experience users expect, while ensuring that data remains secure and compliant in Google Cloud.
- Legacy applications – While new cloud and mobile apps are being used in virtually every industry today, the fact is that most FinServ companies still rely on tried and true legacy apps. Many of these are Windows-based. itopia CAS enables organizations to deploy and manage legacy Windows-based apps in Google Cloud and in hybrid on-premises/cloud environments. CAS’ API integration with Google Cloud Compute Engine, Deployment Manager and Cloud Billing also enables organizations to have full control over their deployment – legacy apps and all – through a single, easy to use interface.
Long story short, cloud desktops are an excellent fit for the FinServ industry. Purpose-built for Google Cloud, itopia Cloud Automation Stack (CAS) enables organizations to easily leverage the economies of scale the cloud offers for the lowest cost possible. In addition, CAS’s automation and orchestration capabilities and deep integration with Google Cloud give administrators complete control over their GCP environment through a single interface. More importantly, perhaps, CAS + Google Cloud frees up their time to create more competitive and strategic services that are required to stay alive in today’s hypercompetitive FinServ world.
