How to Compete in Financial Services IT

Digital transformation is top-of-mind for nearly every organization, but financial firms have a unique set of demands -- both internal and external -- that expect change (and expect it to happen quickly). 

Why? Software-defined, digital competitors are outpacing long-standing banks operating on multi-tiered, legacy infrastructure. And it’s only getting harder to keep up, especially if businesses are reluctant to bid adieu to their inefficient, decade-long infrastructure. 

It’s high time for a modern, business-accelerating solution. The form? Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) -- a simple-to-use, quick-to-deploy powerhouse that collapses legacy silos in a matter of clicks. And if you’ve been itching to get hybrid-ready, HCI serves as a powerful foundation without the complexity of separate management interfaces. 

Below are six ways you can leverage hyperconvergence to up-level your organization from a financial center to a competitive banking authority.

1. Create customer-first solutions

Whether your customers are in the middle of nowhere or in the center of Time Square, they expect a consistently excellent experience -- both on their desktops or through their mobile device.

So, what do you as a financial firm do? You pump out agile, customer-oriented solutions. With hyperconvergence, you’re free to develop, test, and launch customer-facing services reliably (no risk of overworking the system). This way, you can experiment and innovate on your terms and bring unique solutions to the market. 

After all, these days, boosting your competitive aptitude isn’t just about getting products out quickly -- they need to be considerably better, faster, and easier-to-use. 

2. Build and scale at light speed

In a legacy environment, scaling can look a little something like this: you’ll need to predict your resource consumption 3-5 years in advance, and more likely than not, you’ll end up with much more or much less than you’ll need. Even if you’re a psychic and guess precisely right, you’re left with resources sitting idly until they’re needed.

Hyperconvergence operates on a pay-as-you-grow model, so you can start small and add nodes as you go along. Many financial firms have harnessed the power of HCI in their own datacenters, such as Vijay Luthra, CTO at Northern Trust, who says: “Our clients will benefit from our investment in hyperconverged infrastructure through increased operational agility, efficiency, and scale.”

3. Get a grip on your data

Businesses have accepted that data is king. And it’s true -- being able to capture, store, secure, access, and analyze real-time data are all necessary to combat financial crime, stay competitive, and drive innovation. 

But data has a radically important spot in financial organizations, and those that are able to round up granular data are equipped with more accurate information to run transactions. Plus, implementing machine learning can help your system deliver smart, predictive guesses.

Data-as-a-service (DaaS) is a simpler way to streamline management, accelerate provisioning, and bypass the headache of juggling multiple software vendors. Instead, you can consolidate all your data onto a single platform and apply enterprise-wide specifications to manage the system. Plus, since the majority of your data can only be accessed through your DaaS solution, this approach adds a second security layer over your data.  

4. Eliminate high infrastructure costs

If your IT budget is dedicated to infrastructure maintenance costs, your financial firm simply won’t have the means to fuel high-value, innovative projects and customer-facing services. And infrastructure costs can come from several areas -- support costs, support teams, licensing costs, upgrade costs, and power and cooling costs, to name a few. 

Hyperconverged infrastructure certainly addresses these challenges, and it helps lower your overall TCO. But the cloud is also viable, and it provides opportunities for automation. Thankfully, HCI and the cloud can go hand in hand.

Together, you’ll see a dramatic reduction in your overall datacenter footprint. Trek, for example, reduced its footprint by 75% when it switched to a hyperconverged platform. And best of all, you can split your IT budget 50/50 for daily operations and innovation -- rather than the 80/20 ratio many businesses are used to. 

5. Up your cybersecurity game

Did you know the average cost of a data breach is nearly $4 million? Or that financial services ranks in the top 5 most vulnerable industries when it comes to cyberattacks?

No business wants to make headlines due to a security breach, but because banks are responsible for sensitive client data and their finances, FinServ should take more proactive measures to ensure their enterprise and customers stay secure.

The best way to ensure security at every point in the datacenter is to apply a security-first approach, meaning security is woven into the architecture (or code) of your infrastructure, so it remains resilient and compliant from the start. Plus, implementing automation into the security process can help eliminate human error and deliver seamless scalability.

6. Empower and reward your workforce

We’ll put this in simple terms: Keep your employees happy, or risk losing them. Complex infrastructure, day-to-day tedium, and lack of workplace flexibility are all common reasons today’s workforce simply isn’t satisfied with the “norm”; instead, they’re looking for ample work/life balance and increased autonomy. 

End-user computing, including VDI and DaaS, is among the best ways to tick both boxes. Employees can stay connected with their necessary applications (and with the rest of the company) no matter where they are, and they don’t have to be tied down to a desktop computer to work. 

But above all, implementing a hyperconverged foundation is crucial to reduce or eliminate banal, agonizing management tasks. And according to Gartner, HCI can help IT leaders up-level and reassign their employees to more important, engaging projects. 

Ready for change?

Let’s make it a priority. Learn more about the business-moving advantages of hyperconvergence in this eBook, and find real-world examples and quotes from businesses that have seen dramatic change as a result of their HCI investments.