Podcast: Central banks and cloud adoption

Cloud services could become crucial to helping central banks remaining technologically agile enough to adapt to changes in the markets, CB on Air’s latest podcast reveals.

Central banks are also moving towards more automation of processes and, increasingly, turning to the cloud for services that are difficult to achieve at reasonable cost in-house.

Central Banking’s latest Big Data report revealed just under two-thirds of respondent central banks used some form of cloud services.

“We are seeing a trend of change. Central banks are opening up and see cloud services as an option,” says Lars Schröder, senior engagement manager at SkySparc.

In the latest Partners in Focus episode, Schröder notes there are numerous benefits to cloud technology: easier maintenance, more robust disaster recovery and lower costs of ownership are key among them.

Most central banks are still only using cloud for basic applications – for example, to run Microsoft office and host corporate websites.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to see central banks broaden their use of cloud services, says Marcus Gullers, head of product management at SkySparc.

Gullers notes that one of the biggest impediments to cloud usage has been fears around access, privacy and choice over where data can be stored. “There is a longstanding perception that [cloud services] are unsafe, and that is not the case anymore… changing perceptions toward it will be important,” he says.

Before the pandemic, the standard for most central banks was that staff had to come into the office to access systems. This changed as the pandemic forced central banks to adopt remote working models for most staff.

“I think we will see wider uses of cloud services in the future,” says Schröder. “And there is already clear movement."

Index

00:00 Introduction

00:42 Status of cloud technology

02:00 Benefits of cloud

05:13 Security and robustness of cloud solutions

07:20 Applications for treasury management

09:24 Migrating to the cloud

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