As a wealth or investment manager operating in 2021, it’s highly likely your clients will seek reassurance on how good your technology is. And with the focus increasingly on public cloud, you’ll face many questions from your clients, keen to know how secure your firm’s cyber security management is and how client data is protected. If you can’t confidently respond by demonstrating agile and highly secure technology, then you may get left behind.
Public cloud technology services are fast becoming a critical ingredient to modernise financial services organisations. Adoption is happening quickly, with Microsoft 365 and Azure leading the way to transform financial services such as wealth and investment management. But understanding what the best route is for your firm requires significant skills and experience to develop the right adoption strategy.
Here we address 5 main concerns for moving to public cloud:
Why should I choose public cloud for remote working?
Changes in the workplace have accelerated during Covid-19. Companies need to quickly improve their employees’ digital resilience and enable them to work remotely securely and easily. Going forward financial services firms are realising the need to embrace agile technology to drive business resiliency longer term.
Public cloud technologies, led by Microsoft 365 and Azure, are transforming digital workplace technology to increase productivity, mobility, communication and collaboration, manage risk and adhere to regulation. Public cloud lets you unify your workplace communication and collaboration onto a single, secure and compliant cloud platform.
How will I ensure confidentiality and privacy for my clients against rapidly changing threats?
As a wealth manager, you will have personal and highly confidential information about your clients that needs safeguarding. Client confidentiality is paramount. The risks of being hacked, phishing scams and employees clicking on email links continue to be major issues that could seriously compromise your business. As you move your applications and data to public cloud, you will of course have concerns about growing security risks and regulatory burden.
These risks can be mitigated with rigorous security controls that are tailored and native to cloud solutions. With public cloud, business applications and data will be securely delivered to mobile users on any device, striking a balance between data security and user experience. If you don’t have the necessary internal technical skills to support the shift, you should consider using an expert to manage your cloud infrastructure, cyber security and workplace technology.
How do I keep my client’s data secure?
Keeping your data secured against rapidly changing threats will protect your business and be a key part of your data security compliance obligations. Any poor security standards could open your organisation to new threats. At the same time, the amount of data is growing and you need to be able to extract value and insight from multiple data points in real-time.
As a wealth manager you will be focused on your core business but will need to maintain careful oversight of ever-changing regulations. Working with the right technology partner who provides compliant services will lower your risk and give you additional security services to protect your business and meet cyber security regulations. This should include internal data audits, user awareness training and vulnerability assessments.
How do I move to public cloud?
One of the benefits of Microsoft 365 cloud technology is that it is quick to deploy, easy to administer and keep up to date. However, moving to public cloud in financial services will bring some significant complexity and risk which requires the support of a technology expert. Selecting the right partner will be critical.
What about the cost of public cloud?
Without a major capital investment, the costs are kept relatively low for a managed service with end user support, digital workplace technology and the Microsoft 365 cloud.
