How Banks can Leverage Performance using Cloud Computing Services Models

1. How Banks can Leverage Performance using Cloud Computing Services Models Cloud computing enables banks to improve performance in many ways. They save large sums of money that could have been used as up-front capital to acquire data infrastructure. The intrinsic nature of cloud technology allows users to pick those services required on a pay-as- you-go basis. Financial firms also benefit from a high level of protection and disaster recovery. Embracing cloud computing services is, therefore, one way banks can guarantee their business continuity. It is a great way to move from a capital intensive approach to a flexible business model. Cloud computing offers various cloud service models to choose from. The most important aspect is to select the right model to match business needs. This article gives a review of the available models of cloud computing. Cloud Service Models Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) In this model, the cloud service provider stores the business software plus the related data. The user accesses the software and data through a web browser. The type of software that a bank can access this way includes human resource management, customer relationship management, accounting, enterprise resource planning, and service desk management. This model is similar to ASP where the provider hosts software and only delivers it to the approved end-users. The provider gives access to a single copy of an application created specifically for SaaS distribution. Through a Service Level Agreement (SLA), users may store data locally. With SaaS, banks don’t have to install applications in their desktops or own data centers. They only require to subscribe to the service provider. The pay-as-you-go basis of this model can allow the bank to set a predictable budget. They can also terminate the offering to stop the recurring charges. Business Process-as-a-service (BPaaS) This cloud solution is useful for standard business processes like payroll, human resources, and billing. All other service models rely on BPaas for process expertise. An enterprise needs to ascertain that a business process matches business policies. Then, it can use it in different application environments.

2. BPaas is a service-oriented model, so its interfaces are well-defined. Since they are optimized to deliver services consistently, banks can use them to leverage several processes. They can standardize, automate and enable redundancy according to how services are used and delivered. You can configure BPaas according to the process being designed. BPaas is ideal for those tasks that are done regularly. A good example is transactions management. It is a service that can help to plan more efficiency and versatility into operations. There is no more need to build requests manually into a program as was the case traditionally. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Here, the service provider avails a complete platform for application, database development, interface, testing, and storage. Thus, the business can streamline development, support, and maintenance of custom applications. This position helps to minimize infrastructure needs and consequently lowers IT costs. This model provides the user with an optimized and resilient environment to install applications and sets of data. Thus, they can focus on creating and running applications and not constructing and maintaining infrastructure. A bank can consider using Paas for software development. They have at their exposure the computing and storage infrastructure, compiling and testing services, text editing necessary to allow quick creation of software. A significant advantage of using this model for software development is that developers can work together remotely. The developers enjoy simplicity and convenience as the provider supports infrastructure and IT services. An enterprise enjoys a great deal of cost saving as a charge for the cloud services is on a per-use basis. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) The cloud model offers business software, servers, data center space, and network equipment. The firm does not need to purchase any, but get them as a fully outsourced service. It, therefore, uses processing, networks, storage and other computing resources provided in the IaaS cloud. In addition, the firm gets a range of services along with the above infrastructure components. They may include detailed billing, log access, monitoring, load balancing, backup, and recovery. They are service-driven and the user can exercise higher levels of automation. For instance, the user can use policies to implement load balancing, maintain application performance and check availability. Virtualization is mostly applicable to integrate or decompose physical resources. This is to cope with either increasing or decreasing resources demand from the customers. IaaS is effective for

3. temporary workloads, experimental or those that change unexpectedly (for instance, where the bank may be developing a new product). An excellent example of IaaS is Amazon’s EC2. The bottom line is that banks don’t have a reason to curtail themselves from development and high performance. The key stumbling block for major investments being capital expenditure, cloud computing eliminates it. Banks only need to budget for operational expenses to use the cloud to drive optimal performance. Cloud computing enables acquiring scalability, cost saving and saving time to concentrate on core business.