Regulatory compliance and data privacy requirements require financial institutions (FIs) to consider carefully where their applications are running and where the customer data is stored. The data protection and data sovereignty laws in most countries require an enterprise to keep data in certain geographic locations. PCI Data Security Standard, for example, regulates the way the customer and financial transactions data is stored and transmitted.

Software development in the banking and finance industry can make you feel like you’re wearing chains. Regulation, compliance, upfront costs, privacy, legacy systems, fear of cyberattacks, and an “if it ain’t broke” approach can lead to a lack of innovation. Despite these challenges, some technology-forward banks like Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, and Wells Fargo have embraced the cloud and introduced DevSecOps and cloud-friendly architectural practices.

The financial services industry has evolved at an astonishing rate in recent years, underpinned by rapid advances in technology. Financial institutions (FIs) are digitising their customer journeys and scaling-up transformation. Cloud is a catalyst for enterprise business transformation and is a focus for C-suite executives and board members of financial services organisations.

Organisations in the banking, insurance, and financial services sectors have been slower than others in moving to the cloud due to concerns over security, data residency, and privacy. For more traditional financial institutions, there is also the not insignificant consideration that their core banking systems are running on decades old on-prem architecture that is just not possible to shift to the public cloud. Nevertheless, adoption of the cloud in banking and finance is happening.

Monitoring business-critical applications is just as vital as deploying them since their performance directly impacts your ability to meet business goals. When it comes to the banking industry, ensuring superior application performance of applications is crucial to enabling smooth banking operations. But it’s also complex since banks deploy interconnected applications across on-premise and cloud.