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Region sees a growing adoption of hybrid cloud by BFSI sector

The transformation is driven by the sector’s need to adapt to the evolving digital landscape, meet customised IT requirements, and achieve ambitious business growth objectives

The Middle East and Africa region is seeing a growing adoption of hybrid cloud by the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector, which is experiencing a significant shift in its IT infrastructure strategy for mission critical transformations.

The transformation is driven by the sector’s need to adapt to the evolving digital landscape, meet customised IT requirements, and achieve ambitious business growth objectives. The anticipated trends which are expected to evolve in 2024 and in near future were the topic of discussion at The Future of Financial Services CXO Summit by Cloud4C, organised by Khaleej Times-KT Events at Waldorf Astoria, DIFC.

The exclusive CXO Summit witnessed strong participation and mix of top-tech officials and BFSI sector players representing leading local blue-chip brands, who are the pioneers and shapers of the UAE’s digital agenda and its rapid adoption among the businesses.

The event kicked-off with insightful presentations from cloud leaders covering trends in risk proofed cloud transformation and success stories of institutions on the cloud, followed by a fireside chat ‘Mission Critical Masters’.

The summit had a lively interactive roundtable discussion between leading BFSI organisations to assess their cloud scalability requirements, adaptation, cybersecurity and compliance, upskilling manpower, controlling costs among various other topics of discussion.

The event concluded with a session focused on reimagining the cloud journey, which addressed various options to migrate and modernise on the cloud.

Rakesh Reddy, Regional Director MEA, Cloud4C, said: “Hybrid cloud architectures offer a unique blend of on-premises and cloud-based solutions, providing BFSI organizations in the Middle East and Africa with the flexibility and scalability required to navigate the dynamic market conditions. Cloud4C has been a trusted partner for FSIs worldwide including four of the top 10 Middle East banks, extending fully in-country compliant, automation-powered, and industry best practice framework-driven managed public, hybrid and multi-cloud solutions to power FSI workloads. Our 25 Centres of Excellence with 2000+ cloud experts ensure there’s no risk blind spot, integrating advanced cybersecurity, DR, cost optimization, native digital services per the firm’s business objectives in a single SLA till application login. Such one-stop experience delivery is critical to empower Middle East FSIs deliver the financial experiences of tomorrow.”

The BFSI sector in the Middle East and Africa is increasingly turning to hybrid cloud architectures as a strategic choice to address customized IT transformation needs and ambitious business growth objectives. This approach enables them to strike the right balance between security, compliance, agility, and cost-effectiveness in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Ravindran Ramiah, CTO, Aafaq Islamic Finance, said: “The regulatory requirements in the BFSI sector often demand stringent data control, making hybrid cloud an ideal choice for customizing security measures to align with specific compliance needs. Overall, the hybrid cloud›s versatility, security, and compliance capabilities make it the preferred technology for the BFSI sector, providing the best of both worlds in cloud computing.”

Sreedhar Suragouni, CIO, Sukoon Insurance, said: “The BFSI sector prefers hybrid cloud ecosystem for several compelling reasons, as it offers a unique blend of public and private cloud solutions. This enables institutions to leverage the flexibility, resiliency, and faster deployment times and most importantly, cost-efficiency offered by public cloud players while maintaining critical data security and compliance needs hosted in their private infrastructure.”