There is no debating the benefits of cloud technology. However, compared to other sectors, many institutions in the capital markets space are lagging in terms of cloud adoption.

Given the highly complex tech requirements of banks, the everchanging regulatory landscape and the business-critical nature of trading applications such as Summit, it’s not hard to see why this inertia exists.

Although moving forward may seem like a challenge, failure to act will cause you far more problems in the long run. With the right approach, and the right partner, moving to the cloud can be painless and offers significant benefits in terms of scalability, agility, productivity and security.

Why aren’t financial institutions moving Summit to the cloud?

Legacy systems: Many of the applications that banks rely on have been around a long time, and Summit is no exception. Because platforms like Summit have been so deeply embedded for so many years, some businesses are relying on legacy infrastructure or application management paradigms that have been in place for decades. Modernising this requires resource and expertise that banks either do not have or cannot spare.

The wrong approach: The cloud requires a totally new way of thinking. An approach that merely lifts your existing Summit environment and shifts it to the cloud will not deliver the benefits of cloud technology. 

For companies that have taken this route in the past – treating the cloud like another data centre – there is every chance that cloud migration has ended up wasting money and delivering substandard business outcomes. This may lead to the assumption that the benefits of the cloud are exaggerated. Not true: a Well-Architected cloud infrastructure, built by experts with a deep understanding of cloud technology, Summit and your specific business needs, can have a transformative impact for your business. 

Regulations: Laws and guidance designed to keep customers and financial institutions safe in the pre-cloud world are still active today, which means regulation has (unintentionally) become something of a barrier to cloud adoption. Again, with the right expertise at hand, implementing a compliant cloud approach can be relatively straightforward. This is especially true because many fundamental compliance obligations have already been considered by cloud providers and are covered by their solutions.

Misplaced security concerns: Security is paramount for banks and, in some cases, there may be concerns about the security implications of moving Summit to the cloud. Such concerns are unfounded. The reality is, with multilayered security based on the ‘security in depth’ paradigm, the cloud is more secure than traditional systems.

The end of traditional data centre environments

Traditional on-premise data centres around the world are closing as organisations of all sizes quietly move away from this outdated way of operating.

Businesses are realising that relying on traditional data centre environments requires significant investment in infra management, which diverts time and money away from more important, value-adding activity.

Moreover, traditional data centres demand massive upfront CapEx investments in hardware and present the ongoing challenge of managing obsolescence.

Perhaps the biggest drawback however, is the lack of scalability that traditional data centres provide. Extensive lead times for capacity adjustments massively hamper innovation and agility, as well as preventing cost saving measures during periods of low demand.

Get ahead in the cloud

The cloud outperforms traditional data centre environments in every sense. The shortcomings of data centres should be encouraging financial institutions to adopt more modern, flexible and agile cloud solutions for Summit.

However – in addition to the concerns raised so far – a hitherto lack of any viable Summit-specific cloud deployment model has held many organisations back. With the introduction of our new Summit Platform-as-a-Service offering, that’s all changing.

Summit PaaS from Phi Partners can help your organisation overcome every challenge associated with moving Summit to the cloud. It unlocks scalability, cost-efficiency, agility and innovation.

Phi are unique in that we are the only specialists to combine world-leading Summit and Public Cloud expertise with unmatched experience supporting complex capital markets institutions.

Summit PaaS brings all this together to deliver a comprehensive, cloud-enabled, fully-managed Summit service. Enabling automation through Infrastructure as Code, it significantly reduces operating costs, whilst increasing security and quality due to consistency across environments and reduced human intervention.

Our new service covers everything from business case development and cloud adoption strategy through to best-practice Summit cloud architecture design, automated testing, annual Summit upgrades, 24/7 support and robust service governance.

Embrace the benefits of Summit on the cloud and reach peak performance with Summit PaaS.

Visit https://www.phipartners.com/summit-paas/ to learn more about Summit PaaS and what it can do for you.