Leaders across industries share how they are adopting cloud to drive speed and impact.
The value of an organization’s data is magnified in the cloud — enabling agility and new sources of revenue — but leaders must first overcome critical challenges.
We interviewed executives in three economic sectors — financial services, public sector, and telecommunications — for their insights on the unique challenges and opportunities they face, and how they’re leading their organization to deliver stronger results in the cloud.
Milind Nagnur, chief technology officer, Early Warning Services, parent company of the Zelle payment network
Financial institutions are in the trust business, and they’re keenly aware that moving to the cloud can be a key enabler of greater agility in meeting increased consumer demand for digital experiences, without compromising trust and security.
Cloud-based architecture offers three main benefits:
Conversely, the largest barrier to cloud adoption is the industry-wide talent shortage. At Early Warning, we are aggressively recruiting new talent, but that alone can’t address the gap; companies must upskill their existing teams. Additionally, with the natural tension between doing it fast and doing it right, organizations must conduct the appropriate due diligence to validate their cloud technology configurations.
Consumer demand for digital financial products will continue to rise, and financial institutions will keep evolving with the goal of enhancing customers’ financial health through amazing digital experiences.
Maxime Rousseau, chief information security officer, Personal Capital
Financial services is typically a more risk-averse sector. It took companies a long time to move to the cloud. Part of that is the struggle of knowledge management. I’ve lived this in hiring for my team. For instance, many engineers may have 20 or so years experience in a specific technology, which is great, but that might not be relevant anymore.
The castle and moat construct doesn’t work anymore, and leaders in security have to better enable their business. Here are key areas to address:
Tom Suder, president, Advanced Technology Academic Research Center
Cloud migration started out as a cheaper, more effective way for government agencies to store and manage data, but it has evolved into much more. The efficiencies inherent in cloud platforms have facilitated fundamental changes in the way government works for people (and how people work for government). Cloud platforms have made the recent shifts to telework possible and have enabled self-service digital platforms for government services.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, and challenges remain:
Marc Cohn, principal technology strategist, Spirent Communications
Migrating to the cloud is especially critical for the telecommunications sector. It’s not only crucial for operations but also to gain a strategic foothold amid industry disruption.
What telecoms need to do is leverage their facilities and long-standing relationships with customers to offer higher value-added services than transporting and storing data. Furthermore, CSPs must exploit ubiquitous and low-cost cloud services to unleash sustainable value well into the future.
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