Is the finance industry afraid of the cloud?

The cloud promises flexibility and efficiency, allowing the service to continue to grow in popularity. In our cloud report we see huge differences when it comes to adoption rates in different industries. The banking and finance sector are well behind other industries, and yet they are relatively dependent on technology – why?

The cloud promises flexibility and efficiency, allowing the service to continue to grow in popularity. In our cloud report we see huge differences when it comes to adoption rates in different industries. n our report “The next step cloud report” Over 200 decision-makers in IT departments from companies based in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands answered questions about their cloud-usage. They were also asked to rank their adoption rate on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represented a complete lack of cloud-based services and 5 represented full adoption to cloud-based services.

Anna Jäger, Head of Marketing at Basefarm, further explains the scale. “The companies that haven’t started planning for their cloud transition are on level 1, and the ones that have started the planning process are on level 2. The companies that are in the middle of their transition are at a 3, while those who are almost finished have reached a 4. At level 5, you find more “young” companies that were cloud-based to begin with.”

The scale is an efficient way of illustrating what the next step is on your mission to become a cloud-based company, regardless of what level you are on now. Furthermore, it gives great insights into the impact of the cloud in different industries.

In the report, one industry really stands out: the banking and finance sector. Out of all the companies that ranked themselves on level 1 on the scale – meaning they haven’t even started planning for a cloud transition – 25% of them turned out to be from the banking and finance sector. It’s also evident that the sector itself is quite divided; there’s a huge gap between the traditional banks and new, Fintech (financial technology) firms.

Even though the banking sector is way behind in comparison to other industries, there is still a positive trend. Fredrik Ohlsen, CEO at Basefarm says, “We can clearly see that many of the traditional banks and finance companies are moving towards cloud-based services. What they find appealing is the flexibility and increased efficiency that comes with using the cloud. However, they struggle with keeping up-to-date and complying with all the new regulations that are connected to public cloud usageservices. At Basefarm, wehave helped several clients within the banking and finance sector to transform into using clouservices. This has given us a lot of experience with successfully complying with all relevant frameworks.”

Anna Jäger agrees. “In several cases, the laws and regulations have not caught up with the evolution of technology and cloud-based solutions, making security the biggest challenge for anyone looking to transition to cloud-based software.”

“While adopting more to cloud, companies need to start changing the way they view security,” Anna Jäger continues. “You have to let go of the focus on firewalls and instead consider secure coding. The advantage with secure code is that the security is built into the application itself. Companies usually start focusing on this when they are at level 4 in their adoption process.”

The issue of security provides a clear example of how Basefarm’s maturity ladder can help you split up this massive transition into manageable steps. It is done by clarifying which actions need to be taken at different levels. The report also highlights what can happen if your organization doesn’t evolve at the same pace as your industry. The IT department needs to continuously have a dialogue with all other departments about their need for system and software support.

“17% of the respondents don’t know where their CRM database is stored. On level 1 and 2, that number increases to over 20%. The main cause seems to be that the organization doesn’t involve the IT department in the decision-making process concerning which cloud software to purchase. This insight is definitely troubling, especially with regards to GDPR. “ends Anna Jäger.