Cloud banking becoming much more prevalent

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Cloud computing stretches over the wide spectrum of professional business, applying to industries ranging from sciences to the humanities. Lately, the financial world is beginning to incorporate cloud services into everyday operations, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in the banking sector.

According to a study released by Ovum, international spending on banking technology will increase by over 3 percent in 2012, and the total expenditure will surge to well over $100 billion over the next five years.

Though Europe is estimated to have the lowest technological growth rate of all continental regions, recent events show that the region is beginning to implement the predicted upgrades. Spanish banking company Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA) recently announced it will incorporate managed cloud services into its global communications network. Citing "real-time collaboration benefits," BBVA will move 110,000 employee inboxes into the cloud from 26 different countries.

The Ovum report states that online banking will be the fastest-growing section of the financial cloud in 2012, increasing 5.3 percent to $8.3 billion over the year. BBVA will store all of its data on public clouds rather than a private one, providing priority access to secure data via online services. If these trends continue, the banking cloud should become one of the largest public clouds in the world, and the need for proper information security will be more prevalent than ever.