One of the great innovations to emerge from the cloud computing revolution has been the robust ecosystems that form around major platforms and applications. Ecosystems of software and service providers do far more than provide customers with a simple mechanism to purchase services; they create an environment for collaboration, discovery and innovation that benefits all parties.
Ecosystems are particularly important in the financial services industry because of the highly specialized and regulated nature of the business. However, when a robust set of operating principles developed exclusively for the sector are the foundation for an ecosystem, a true win-win-win scenario can emerge. Here’s how each member of the ecosystem realizes value.
Cloud providers
The value of a cloud platform grows with each partner that joins the ecosystem. In the case of financial services, the cloud provider can nurture its partner network by working closely with members to ensure that they adhere to a comprehensive set of security and compliance standards developed specifically for the needs of financial industry customers. IBM’s policy and control framework on IBM Cloud for Financial Services was developed in partnership with IBM Promontory to go beyond NIST benchmarks to meet the risk management needs of financial customers. This allows them to choose independent software vendors (ISVs) on the cloud platform with the confidence that partners are protecting sensitive data and complying with all industry regulations. Ecosystem partners must implement these controls in their own products, giving peace of mind to banks and other financial institutions when migrating and building applications in a public cloud environment. It is essential for any mission-critical workloads in a cloud.
Ecosystem partners
Many of the ISVs that join cloud ecosystems have limited resources. Building a business in the financial services sector is especially challenging because of the volume of security, privacy and other regulatory requirements that must be satisfied.
By joining with a cloud platform provider, ISVs gain access to technical and industry knowledge that helps them navigate the complexity of bringing their products fully into compliance. This expertise may be impractical or impossible for them to access otherwise. Equally important is that partners also gain access to the cloud provider’s customers, including large financial institutions that would be all but impossible for many of them to reach. The cloud vendor offers visibility, introductions and sometimes even financial resources to ISVs, which can add significant value. The ecosystem becomes, in effect, a springboard to success.
IBM Cloud for Financial Services™
This paper explains how IBM Cloud for Financial Services can help your organization fully realize the benefits of public cloud without compromising security and regulatory compliance.
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The existence of an ecosystem is a key factor in customer decision-making. This is especially true in the financial services sector because not all cloud platform providers have fully developed standards and policies that fulfill all the requirements of doing business in this complex industry.
Choosing a cloud provider that has a platform specifically for the financial industry, a policy framework that meets control requirements and best practices, and an ecosystem of partners that are held to the highest standards of security and compliance gives customers the assurance that they can do business in the cloud without assuming additional risk or having to vet each partner individually. IBM’s policy and control framework on IBM Cloud for Financial Services™ was developed in partnership with IBM Promontory and large financial services firms to serve as the foundation for an ecosystem dedicated to the financial industry. Customers can be confident that partners are worthy of their business.
Customers also gain a single point of access to value-added services, including simple installation of software solutions that are fully compatible with the cloud platform they use and access to technical and domain expertise from the cloud provider and its partners. In many cases, they can save on licensing and subscription fees by taking advantage of discounts that have been negotiated by the cloud provider and passed along to customers.
In a world in which true win-win-win scenarios are rare, cloud ecosystems are an example of how the whole can truly be greater than the sum of its parts.
