Introduction
Staying ahead in today’s rapidly changing financial landscape means embracing innovation, such as by adopting newer technologies to enhance important tasks and operations. As an example, cloud platforms have proven themselves as a modern value-add or alternative to on-premise, or “on-prem”, infrastructures, offering organizations a more dynamic way to manage daily operations. When relying solely on traditional physical infrastructure setups, organizations can face significant hurdles, such as extended client onboarding times and the high costs of upgrading and maintaining the required physical equipment. These challenges can divert valuable time, money, and resources that could otherwise be allocated to drive organizational innovation in other areas.
This is where cloud solutions can help revolutionize how financial services operate on a daily basis, by offering advantages in scalability, resilience, and agility. We sat down with Axletree’s Director of IT Operations, Herbert Gordon, for his thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of on-prem versus cloud platforms. As a cloud service provider ourselves, Axletree understands the precision, security, and reliability that organizations look for in their cloud providers. In this article, we will explore some common considerations that arise with cloud platforms, the strengths and drawbacks associated with each, and how organizations can balance these to maximize the benefits of the cloud for their critical operations.
Fortified Security and Privacy with the Cloud
Relying solely on a single cloud platform provider, or maintaining an entirely on-prem environment, can lead to significant drawbacks for financial connectivity. A single cloud provider can create a Single Point of Failure (SPOF) and can limit an organization’s available options for specific services or features; an on-prem environment requires substantial upfront investment and ongoing maintenance, is limited in scalability and flexibility, and can pose security and privacy concerns due to its completely physical nature. These traditional models fall short in the modern financial landscape, leaving institutions vulnerable to security risks, regulatory non-compliance if systems are not maintained properly, and negative impacts on the value organizations can provide to their clients.
A strategically designed cloud environment can enhance security and help move past the limitations of a singular cloud or on-prem setup. For example, employing a multi-layered security framework can protect your data at every stage. At Axletree, we prioritize this comprehensive approach, ensuring that our solutions are inherently secure from the ground up. In our discussion, Gordon highlighted, “Our solution is built around security. We think of security first while building the solution.” We achieve this by implementing protections such as firewalls, VPN technology, and multi-factor authentication in addition to the measures initially placed by the cloud platform providers, to ensure that information is protected from the public Internet. Additionally, while there can be some new risks introduced with the mitigation of a Single Point of Failure, Axletree works closely with our clients to ensure comprehensive redundancy planning, with continuous monitoring and testing to ensure that our clients’ critical financial infrastructure is seamless and airtight.
Beyond security, data privacy is equally crucial. Safeguarding sensitive financial information is not just a regulatory requirement, but a key part of client trust and business integrity. Axletree has stringent privacy controls in place within our policy; by designing our cloud deployments with privacy principles at top of mind, we are able to provide a framework that gives our clients peace of mind regarding the confidentiality of their data and sensitive information.
Accelerating Client Onboarding with Cloud Agility
One of the most impactful benefits of cloud platforms is the increase in speed for client onboarding and service delivery. Unlike traditional on-prem environments that require significant lead times for hardware procurement and setup, the cloud allows for rapid agility and scalability by utilizing systems that are already partially configured to meet client needs.
By leveraging the scalability and flexibility of cloud-based infrastructure, Axletree is able to provide faster onboarding times and smoother transitions for our clients. For example, when onboarding new clients or expanding existing services, the time required to set up the necessary infrastructure is drastically reduced, only requiring time spent to create a separate instance, configure the client-specific environment, and reinforce security controls before it’s ready to use. Additionally, our clients will no longer need to worry about the ongoing costs, testing, and maintenance required to host their infrastructure on-prem, instead entrusting an expert team to continually assess and manage their cloud infrastructure on their behalf. This rapid deployment capability with its minimal footprint allows organizations to seize market opportunities faster and serve their customers more efficiently.
Overcoming Latency Concerns
While cloud platforms offer numerous advantages, one common concern with them is potential latency, especially for geographically dispersed operations. This can manifest as slower response times or delays in data transfer, impacting real-time financial transactions and analytics.
Axletree proactively addresses these challenges by leveraging advanced cloud features to optimize network performance. For example, we utilize a cloud provider feature that allows clients to bypass the public internet once they connect to the closest point of presence, effectively “riding” the provider’s high-speed global network. “When we employ this feature, although the client is hitting the Internet, they’re hitting the first cloud provider point of presence that’s closest to them, and from there they then communicate directly across the network, which makes it a lot faster,” Gordon states.
We further enhance connectivity through solutions like inter-region network peering. This advanced capability allows clients, especially those also utilizing the same cloud provider, to connect directly across that provider’s network, bypassing the public internet entirely for even greater speed and reduced latency. As a result, whether a client is located across the country or across the globe, their connection to Axletree’s services will be just as fast and supported as if they were local.
Cloud Reliability
When organizations move to the cloud, it is true that they give up a degree of control over their infrastructure and services to their chosen cloud provider. This makes reliability a key factor in choosing the right cloud platform for an organization’s critical infrastructure. Organizations must be able to trust that their provider not only delivers consistent performance, but also actively supports their needs if and when issues arise.
At Axletree, we place a high value on partnering with cloud platform providers that offer both robust security frameworks and strong communication practices. Our teams remain closely engaged with our providers to ensure we are always aware of system updates or potential disruptions. This enables us to respond quickly and effectively, ensuring that our clients experience minimal disruptions and maximum performance. In addition, as a cloud service provider ourselves, we also ensure that our SaaS offerings are redundant and stable, with continuous practices of monitoring, evaluation, and evolution to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients in the modern financial landscape.
Conclusion
The evolution of financial connectivity demands a flexible and secure technological foundation. The best solutions for the modern financial landscape combine the established benefits of on-prem infrastructure with the innovative benefits of cloud platforms to offer maximized value to meet the agility and scalability demands of an ever-evolving market. At Axletree, our commitment to providing secure and redundant cloud-based services is driven with a clear focus: providing our clients with the most secure, efficient, and agile solutions possible. Through robust security protocols and a strategic multi-cloud approach, we empower our clients to optimize their operations and achieve their key business objectives.
Ready to explore how Axletree’s cloud expertise can transform your financial connectivity? Connect with us today to learn more!
