How does the sovereign Cloud help enhance innovation and competitiveness in the financial sector?
Financial institutions are beginning their transformation towards the Cloud, with the percentage of regulated workloads on the public cloud now standing at 28% (+18% by 2020).* In fact, the announcement of the strategic partnership between OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systèmes brand, and BNP Paribas at the CLOUD DAYS event received special mention in the speech by Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate in charge of Digital Transition and Telecommunications.
Indeed, banks and financial institutions have been slower to adopt the Cloud due to several factors specific to their industry. Among the reasons: data security, regulatory compliance, the complexity of European regulations, operational challenges related to financial institutions’ historical structures and systems, and the performance and availability of resources. Lack of trust in cloud providers and data sovereignty requirements have also led to some reluctance. But this is now changing, thanks to the Trusted Cloud.
The benefits of scalability, flexibility and cost reduction, with offerings that are tailored to meet sovereignty and security requirements, are the factors that are driving the trend for cloud adoption.
We spoke to Rui Jorge Lopes, Manager Sales EMEA at 3DS OUTSCALE.
How does Cloud computing add value to financial sector?
“Cloud offers a range of benefits and brings significant value to players in the banking and financial sector by improving agility and scalability for faster deployment of their applications, scaling of IT capabilities and the ability to adapt their resources in an easier way,” answers Rui Jorge Lopes. “All with a single objective: to increase their ability to meet their own customers’ needs”.
“It’s also the desire to reduce costs that is at stake (purchase, maintenance, infrastructure upgrades, etc.): instead of investing heavily in a dedicated infrastructure, the Cloud enables access to resources on demand and paying only for what has been actually used,” he adds. “The Cloud facilitates innovation by enabling the rapid testing of new services and products, thanks in particular to the rapidly growing technologies such as artificial intelligence, and by fostering collaboration and data sharing between departments.”
In this way, Cloud adoption enables companies to stay one step ahead and improve their competitiveness in the market. Among the use cases, our expert cited the storage of large volumes of data with very high security standards, advanced use of Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI), the implementation of payment gateways and online banking services, improved customer relationship management with better knowledge of customers and an offer better adapted to their needs.
In order to meet the data protection and regulatory compliance requirements of financial institutions, trusted Cloud operators like OUTSCALE must ensure enhanced security for sensitive data, with guarantees provided by high-level certifications, such as the SecNumCloud qualification by ANSSI.
The security of highly sensitive financial data
The risk of cyber-attacks is a major concern for the financial sector. “Financial institutions are often prime targets for cybercriminals, with theft of sensitive data, ransomware attacks, financial fraud, potential disruption to operations, not to mention the possible reputational risks that would follow,” recalls Rui Jorge Lopes.
Sensitive data, such as financial information, customer data, medical records, and other personal information, are subject to strict confidentiality and security regulations. “The consequences of a security breach or poor data protection in the banking context can have repercussions for both the bank and its customers: a theft of sensitive information that can lead to a loss of customer confidence, or even regulatory and legal sanctions, not to mention the potential impact on brand image and remediation costs associated with the incident,” explains Rui Jorge Lopes.
How does the dominance of US Cloud providers influence the decisions of financial institutions, and what are the implications of extraterritorial laws for data stored in the Cloud?
The Patriot Act gives US authorities, including intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies, increased powers to collect information and access data, even data stored abroad, as part of the fight against terrorism and national security. This means that data stored in the Cloud by a US provider, even if located outside the U.S., may be subject to an access request by U.S. authorities.
The Cloud Act, for its part, aims to facilitate access by US authorities to data stored abroad by US Cloud service providers. It authorizes authorities to request data directly from US Cloud providers, whether stored in the US or abroad, potentially bypassing traditional mutual legal assistance procedures between countries. It also establishes a framework for bilateral agreements between the US and other countries to facilitate access to data for criminal investigations. This raises many questions and concerns about the confidentiality and sovereignty of data stored in the Cloud.
How do you choose a Cloud provider that is able to store and handle this critical, sensitive data?
Security and confidentiality are then, along with performance and scalability, important criteria to consider: trusted Cloud providers must have very strong security measures to protect data and high-level certifications (SecNumCloud, ISO 27001, HDS, etc. for France), be compliant with regulations (compliance with RGPD and other industry standards), provide information on data location.
“A trusted sovereign Cloud aims precisely to enable French and European organizations, especially government institutions and strategic companies, to store and process their sensitive data securely and reduce dependence on foreign Cloud providers by offering a sovereign alternative,” summarizes Rui Jorge Lopes. “This enables organizations to benefit from the advantages of the Cloud while preserving their sovereignty and control over their data.”
Therefore, the French sovereign Cloud by OUTSCALE, offers companies in the financial sector a secure environment that complies with current regulations, and is tailored to their specific needs. Certifications such as SecNumCloud qualification and the security guarantees provided reinforce confidence in the protection of sensitive information held by financial institutions.
Regulatory and legal challenges in the financial sector
Financial players are faced with numerous regulatory and legal challenges. It is essential for them to keep up to date with current regulations on regulatory compliance, risk management, anti-fraud, consumer protection, international jurisdiction requirements that are constantly evolving, and to put in place adequate measures to comply with those requirements.
“Sovereign, cloud-based SaaS regtech, legaltech or complitech solutions can then help them comply with regulations while improving their competitiveness,” adds our expert, who is also in charge of Business Experience Finance development at 3DS OUTSCALE.
Artificial intelligence for the financial sector
With this in mind, OUTSCALE, a Dassault Systèmes brand and a sovereign and sustainable operator of Experience as a Service, has integrated the Innova regtech solution into its Business Experience for Finance portfolio. Innova is an end-to-end regtech platform that enables creation and automation of business processes for asset management companies, fund administrators and custodians.
“This solution offers advanced data analysis, automatic detection of compliance rules and full automation of regulatory controls to manage the regulatory and legal aspects. It enables organizations to simplify their operations, improve efficiency and reduce the risk of non-compliance,” says Rui Jorge Lopes (who will be attending the next AM Tech Day, on October 3, 2023 in Paris).
Take your competitiveness to the next level
How can OUTSCALE bring value to organizations and companies in the financial sector through the Business Experience? With the support of Dassault Systèmes, OUTSCALE offers disruptive XaaS (Experience as a Service) solutions that are both powerful and secure.
According to Rui Jorge Lopes, with Business Experience for Finance, financial organizations benefit from the ability to :
- gain real-time visibility of financial data to inform decision-making and improve financial performance,
- automate and optimize financial processes to reduce errors and costs,
- facilitate the centralization and versioning of all documents linked to financial activity,
- set up compliance controls, model units to be monitored and track incidents,
- improve forecasting and planning with data-driven insights,
- ensure compliance with regulatory and industry standards relating to financial communication and data security.
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