Five ways financial firms can get better value from hybrid IT

Rather than relying on in-branch, face-to-face interactions, banks, and other firms have embraced cloud platforms and mobile-friendly user interfaces. The result is more productive staff and improved customer experiences.

However, while the banks now have gleaming new interfaces, they’re still relying on the same legacy infrastructure that has been in place for years. This is holding many firms back from reaping the full benefits that a digitalisation strategy can deliver.

Maximising the value of hybrid

Many forces are stopping financial firms from migrating away from their legacy back ends. They have to remain compliant with government policies and regulatory requirements while maintaining the system and data security.

While many embrace mobile and cloud technologies to enable company-wide digital transformation, they still have to consider the data that leaves their boundaries. In addition, with the transition to cloud-based applications, firms must manage their workforce without compromising security.

To maximise the potential of cloud-based resources and platforms within a hybrid infrastructure, financial firms need to consider five key areas:

1. Think about user experiences

Firms have traditionally had a headquarters supported by branch offices. Instead, they use traditional hub-and-spoke networks where all locations connect to a single corporate network and data centre. All data is routed back into the data centre via expensive MPLS backhaul links in this setup.

This approach worked well when desktop applications all lived on premises, but no longer functioned effectively when applications moved to the cloud. It adds latency and therefore harms the user experience.

Firms need to find a way to provide staff with seamless access to cloud-based applications, ideally through direct connectivity.

2. Deliver secure access regardless of user location

The hub-and-spoke networks came under pressure during the COVID pandemic when many staff suddenly had to work from home. In many cases, these staff found themselves having to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to go via their firm’s data centre and then out to cloud-based resources. This had a negative impact on performance and lowered productivity.

Relying on VPNs for remote connectivity might be a proven method, but unfortunately, the technology was invented before the age of the cloud. A VPN connection not only slows down traffic but opens the whole network for the user and application, therefore potentially leading to security issues.

Banks and financial institutions should start to free themselves from VPNs and adopt more modern approaches that provide higher security. One option that should be considered is a zero-trust strategy.

3. Use virtualisation to boost security

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has already been broadly adopted for security and data residency restrictions in the financial sector. Rather than accessing an application directly, VDI enables the visualisation of information on-screen without the ability to change or extract data. However, the application itself still runs on the server and does not leave the corporate boundary.

VDI technology enables remote users to connect to core systems; however, it is complex, and performance can prove an issue. For this reason, firms should consider complementing their VDI resources with a cloud-based security approach that can help control user access and improve performance.

4. Reconsider BYOD

Financial firms have tended to rely on ‘fat’ clients and desktop systems in their offices, which provide a completely different experience than what staff use at home on their personal devices. As a result, many firms are considering implementing a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy to bridge this gap.

Some firms are going further and creating mobile apps for tasks such as loan origination and policy quoting, packaging them inside a mobile device manager (MDM) container, and using real-time web services or APIs that connect to core systems. This allows staff to access them securely on a personal device.

Instead of building mobile apps, IT teams should be looking for more effective ways to give field staff secure access to core business functionality through the cloud. For example, ubiquitous mobile broadband access can facilitate staff access to core bank applications as easily at home as they do in the office.

5. Improved audit support through visibility

Financial institutions always need to think about upcoming audits and other regulatory requirements as all firms need to understand whether they have appropriate measures to cope with risks.

IT decision-makers need to anticipate what supervisory developments mean for their organisation and make decisions based on these, and their own threat analysis and cyber programmes. Therefore, the most important parameter is the visibility into all employees’ on-off network traffic.

To fulfill the requirement of an internal IT audit and for visibility into all data streams in the fight against cybercrime, a highly integrated cloud security platform can reduce the complexity of tasks and facilitate auditing processes.

By taking these steps, financial firms can enjoy the benefits of digitisation while also retaining their core legacy systems for as long as required. As a result, staff will be well supported, and customer experiences, enhanced.

Steve Singer, regional Vice President and ANZ country manager, Zscaler

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.