A safe haven for financial services in the Public Cloud

Due in part to COVID-19, digital transformation is currently at the top the agenda for many organisations. The pandemic has not only changed the way we work in the short term, but also how to prepare for organisational changes and market disruption. In response to this, organisations are increasingly switching to cloud environments. Industry-specific challenges are accelerating this transition. In the world of finance, for example, there is stiff competition from challenger banks and other innovative start-ups that typically embrace the cloud. Fifteen minutes to find out how much you can borrow? Financing within one day? Setting up an online payment process within a few minutes? All this is possible through cloud computing. The cloud therefore seems a logical choice, but which cloud is the best option?

Security Officers prefer a Private Cloud environment as it offers them more control compared to a Public Cloud. The public cloud apparently gives them less control and the feeling that this solution is less secure or compliant. In addition, SaaS solutions could have behind-the-scenes dependencies that could have an impact on the security baseline or compliancy rules.

And yet Public Cloud environments offer unparalleled advantages – and the challenges are less intimidating than they first appear to be.

“Fifteen minutes to find out how much you can borrow? Setting up an online payment process within a few minutes? All this is possible through cloud computing.”

Scale advantage

The resources of big cloud platforms such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google are enormous and impossible to match for an individual financial organisation. It is precisely by making use of these resources that a decisive and flexible organisation is created with a mature security baseline and assurance of the compliance rules.

An example of this is auto scaling. With this service, the capacity of the environment can be scaled up and down at any time. You only procure and pay for what is necessary. This is the case, for example, when you develop an application and a lot of computing and processor capacity is temporarily required. As soon as the application is ready for production, the additional resources are simply scaled down and the associated costs are no longer charged. This speed and flexibility is becoming more and more important as the developments in the financial market succeed each other rapidly. Examples would be new technologies, higher security requirements and changes in legislation. In this respect, the Pensions Act will change as from 1 January 2022. This means that banks, insurers and pension funds will have to make serious adjustments in the fields of security and compliance.

“In addition to economies of scale and efficiency, rendering security and compliance easier to manage is an important reason to choose the public cloud.”

Security & Compliance

Public cloud environments offer advantages that cannot be realised in a private cloud and they are very well secured. The big platforms of, among others, Microsoft and Amazon were audited for all the standards such as PCI/DSS and ISAE 3402 up to SOC 2.

The financial service provider is, however, responsible for its own environment in the Public Cloud and must be able to prove, to the AFM (the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets) for example, that this environment meets the guidelines. As Secure Managed Service provider, Solvinity has the knowledge and experience to set up the security baseline that ensures optimal protection for all applications in collaboration with the organisation. The security baseline and the compliance framework ensure that, as a business, the standards set by AFM and DNB (Dutch: De Nederlandse Bank) are met.

Lightening the load in the Public Cloud

In addition to economies of scale and efficiency, rendering security and compliance easier to manage is an important reason to choose the public cloud. It provides a flexible and scalable environment that easily adapts to changing situations, without sacrificing security or compliance.

Thanks to years of knowledge and experience in both the Public and Private Cloud, as well as the challenges faced by financial institutions, Solvinity offers peace of mind and security. We know how to demonstrate your control with the aid of certifications. It is with good reason that we are the only Dutch Managed Service provider that is SOC 2 certified for Microsoft Azure. By laying a stable and secure foundation, we provide an environment where you can build applications safely and without worry.

Would you like to know more about the opportunities that the public cloud offers and how you can stay secure and compliant there too? Please contact us, we are happy to help you.