More​ ​is​ ​more​ ​when​ ​it​ ​comes​ ​to​ ​the​ ​cloud

This past summer I noticed that OakNorth Bank in the United Kingdom announced it was partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch the UK’s first cloud-based bank.

Then in the past couple of weeks, I saw that AWS was expanding deals with bitcoin retailers, amping up its Artificial Intelligence (AI) game as well as its serverless database services, and landing deals with big healthcare providers.

It reminded me of the first time I ever heard about cloud-based storage and how far we’ve come

Past as Prologue

Around 2000, the much hallowed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) began to hold annual emerging technology conferences. All the soon-to-be major players – Amazon, Google, Intel, etc – would send their CEOs and other far-sighted senior executives to talk about new ideas that were shaping their view of technology was changing the world of business, science, and education.

’ll never forget one presentation by one of the Amazon execs. He noted that Amazon had built enormous server farms to manage all the data they were accumulating. And copies of all that data had to be stored. And massive amounts of storage capacity had to be in waiting for growth across its business and customer lines.

So Amazon got to thinking about ways to monetize all this extra capacity that they had to have in their system.

I think about that now as cloud services have become a major aspect of the next generation in computing and storage platforms for businesses. And it’s no surprise, AWS is the leader in the cloud computing business ($4.6 billion in revenue in Q3) because it was thinking ahead, anticipating the market demand.

At Geezeo, we got into the digital financial management business in 2006 and also saw the potential power of the cloud while it was just a blip on other’s radar screen. It’s why we linked up AWS as our primary cloud partner right out of the gate. And that relationship continues to pay dividends.

Look Before You Leap to the Cloud

But the real question is, how does moving business to the cloud benefit a Financial Institution?

Before I get to that answer, it’s important to understand the array of options in the cloud space today and why going big is a smarter choice than going small when it comes to cloud services.

1. Overleveraged. First, smaller cloud providers may be new to the game or are straining to remain price competitive with bigger players in the space. That means they may be running at the limits of their current system, not wanting to spend more on costly upgrades.

2. Underperformance. It’s not just static data the gets moved to the cloud. It’s also dynamic data that has to move back and forth with as little latency as possible. If your cloud provider isn’t running a world-class system, neither are you.

3. Data without Action. Another key to having a great cloud partner is being able to have the tools to slice and dice the data you receive from your customers and turn it into actionable strategies. Just having your data available without any context for the marketing power available to your sales team is like paying for an entire hotel and sleep in only one room.

4. Mobility. If your FI is committed to the mobile banking space, then finding a reliable cloud services firm is crucial. And not having a mobile strategy is a risky way to move forward in today’s marketplace.

Set and Forget. Because each cloud service and its partners have different protocols, you don’t want to keep jumping from one provider to another. All that time lost is time your competitors have to catch you.

Take Full Advantage of the Cloud

Geezeo saw the potential of linking with AWS a decade ago and that relationship has allowed us to give our clients all the performance, value and opportunities that they need and deserve. Our SaaS serves as a bridge between FIs and AWS to enhance the value of the digital banking experience for the customers as well as the institutions.

The bottom line is the bottom line: By working with AWS, Geezeo allows our more than 500 clients to monetize and deepen their individual relationships with their customers much more effectively than we have in the past because the cloud offers an array of tools built to meet the specialized needs of FIs in one spot.

And as this next wave of the digital age expands, so will our ability to add even more powerful tools for our clients.