e-Forex-Nov-23

Crossing the Security Rubicon:
How Managed Service Providers
are hastening banks’ migration
to the Cloud
NETWORKS, HOSTING & CONNECTIVITY
The notion that ‘freedom lies on the other side of fear’ holds true not only in human
psychology but also in the context of financial business. In the FinTech world, cloud technology
is freeing banks and financial institutions into greater flexibility, resilience and, prudently
done, profitability. To achieve this, they have to conquer fears about security and regulatory
compliance.
BARRIERS TO MIGRATION
Not too long ago it was considered
a highly risky proposition to store,
manage and process sensitive
financial and customer data in the
cloud. In addition, the onus for
compliance rested squarely on banks’
shoulders. Relinquishing control of
their environment while remaining
responsible for their own security
policies and procedures felt like too
much of a risk.
GROWING TRUST
Nevertheless, to have any competitive
relevance, banks and other financial
Oscar Neill
institutions must be able to innovate,
streamline their operation, scale up
or down, and ensure the highest
levels of quality, performance, and
customer service, all with the greatest
agility and adaptability, and without
compromising security.
In recognition, specialist financial
infrastructure providers are dedicated
to facilitating not only operational
efficiency but also secure and
compliant governance up and down
the supply chain.
Oscar Neill, Chief Information and
Security Officer for Beeks Group
comments: “A dedicated financial
services cloud provider understands
the needs and pain-points of its
client’s business as well as the controls,
frameworks and compliance demands
incumbent upon it. It keeps abreast
of new regulations, forges securityfocused
partnerships, and ensures its
own security accreditations and quality
standards are as current, auditable and
dynamic as possible.”
MSP OFFERINGS
Consequently, the preparedness of
Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
to shoulder much of the compliance
burden on behalf of their customers is
beginning to influence the increasing
level of comfort and trust among
banks in cloud migrations.
Here are a few key examples of how
financial MSPs are doing this:
Integrated pillars of security
Describing how cloud security
capabilities are key pillars of his
company’s flexible architecture,
Neill says: “Our capital markets
dedicated private and hybrid
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
solutions have integrated market
leading malware protection and
vulnerability scanning capabilities
to ensure secure configurations
for our customers’ infrastructure.
Zero Trust access management,
firewalling, intrusion detection
and prevention, and Security
Information and Event Management
(SIEM) are all baked into our
solutions from day one. Unlike
public cloud infrastructure sharing,
Beeks’ private cloud provision
puts us in complete control of our
66 NOVEMBER 2023 e-FOREX