Cloud computing has been undoubtedly one of the premier advancements in the business community of the past few years. Organizations of different sizes can reinvent their outdated processes using and gain significant business benefits using the cloud.

Thanks to its potential, the cloud has become popular in a variety of industries. One of the sectors that have particularly benefited from cloud computing is financial services industry.

Here are five ways that finance companies can use this new and exciting technology to create a more advanced business.

1.   Cloud can help ensure the safety of vital client information

Secure cloud solutions can offer multilayered digital and physical protection of sensitive data. Finance companies are held to a much higher standard than companies in other industries when it comes to protecting proprietary information. There may even be legal repercussions for a company in the finance industry that allows the personal and financial information of a client to leak out. Having this information in a secure cloud. A cloud migration strategy is a necessity.

Many finance company heads make the mistake of believing that data must be in their physical proximity to be more protected. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in-house hardware systems may be more susceptible to attack than professionally colocated systems. Cloud data centers are purpose-built facilities that deploy enterprise-grade software and hardware protection to keep data safe. However, it is essential to choose a specialized solution and a trusted provider, rather than a basic solution with a hyperscale provider.

The cloud also allows a finance company to create virtual duplicates of data that protects it from disappearance or corruption. Creating redundant instances of data is one of the most important innovations in the security field of the past decade. Being one of the requirements to comply with finance industry standards, redundancy is certainly one of the benefits the cloud offers to finance companies.

2. Financial services companies can provide more specialized services to clients

The cloud allows a finance company to give more context to big data. Within a data stream, disorganized data does very little to help a company cater to its clients in a more intimate way. This is true no matter how much of this data is cultivated. Financial institutions that handle high volumes of disorganized data may find themselves at a loss when compared to other firms in the industry with more organization.

The cloud gives a financial company more resources and allows it to free up its in-house resources to focus on other things such as data analysis and organization. When data gets organized, a savvy company can use it to provide more specialized services. Companies can also give better customer service and expect a better marketing ROI because the marketing that is sent out will match with the customers that it reaches that much more.

3. The cloud enables financial services companies to lower costs

The upfront cost of connecting a financial company to the cloud is getting lower and lower in every business cycle. However, many companies consider the cost too high, especially if they are not doing business at scale just yet. The upfront cost gets paid back within a few months, if not weeks, of the initial connection. There are many ways that the cloud helps a financial company to lower its costs.

First of all, data can be transferred and stored for much less than it could on in-house hardware. Keeping in-house servers is a high-cost strategy that even the largest financial companies in the world look to partly replace with cloud solutions. In addition to this, connecting with the cloud speeds up websites and other digital assets, which allows for a much faster transfer of data. Speed means money in the digital world, and this is especially true in the world of finance.

4. Diverting the pressure of holding resources across many pieces of hardware

As stated before, there are many reasons that keeping data onsite can be quite nerve-racking. First of all, having data close to its proprietor is not a safety guarantee. Secondly, working from older, overused hardware causes the data stream to slow down. Finance companies need their data streams to work incredibly fast – much more so than the average company in another industry.

Holding resources in the cloud tends to alleviate the pressure of holding data in house. You know that your data stream is being protected by a professional digital and physical security team. It is much harder for hackers to break into this stream. Your security is updated continuously, without a need for you to waste manpower for its oversight.

5. Improved collaboration both internally and between companies

Having a third-party private cloud solution is becoming more and more commonplace in the finance industry. In the same way that a commercial bank cannot do business with a borrower with a low credit score, many institutions cannot do business with other institutions without a secure IT.

The cloud allows for faster data processing, analysis, and dissemination. With transactions becoming more and more complicated as time moves on, you need to have a data stream that is as fast and as reliable as possible. There is no better way to make sure this happen than to get in the cloud quickly and learn the industry standards that your potential partners are taking on.

Cloud Computing as the industry standard

There are many other advantages for a financial company to get involved with the cloud. Not only is it becoming an industry standard to do this, but there are services that a financial institution simply cannot get any other way. If you are looking to move your institution forward in the next few years, then you owe it to deploy the latest technologies. There is no more important innovation that you can give to your clients and your potential partners.