BSP urges banks to adopt cloud computing

CEBU, Philippines - Philippine banks are seen to improve their performance and service delivery following the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) announcement urging and allowing banks to use cloud computing technology.

"It will definitely enable banks to deliver their services in a more reliable and more cost-effective manner. They will respond better to the needs of the market and allow for more transactions during high-traffic seasons like Christmas," said DataOne Asia President and chief executive officer (CEO) Cyril Rocke.

DataOne is one of the Philippines' cloud computing pioneers. It introduced the enterprise cloud service CloudSecureâ„¢ and in 2011 launched a cloud-based productivity and communications service for enterprises that comes with expert, round-the-clock support.

Rocke said that with cloud computing, banks would have more uptime of up to 99.99 percent or even higher and would need less capital investment for this.

Banks would also have access to the latest technologies in terms of data encryption and be able to address the demands of their customers without having to overspend.

“Medium-sized banks will benefit from the move the most as they will have access to the same systems as the leading banks at the same price points,” said Rocke.

Meanwhile, Rocke allayed fears that the technology might pose security risks.

"The BSP has stressed that banks are allowed to use 'private clouds' technology only. This means that the cloud computing infrastructure is optimized and segregated per bank. This is not about multiple banks sharing the same platform, nor a 'one size fits all' system. There is no risk of the mingling of data or of databases," Rocke said.

A bank that engages in cloud computing services will instead be "securely segregated from the others" through the use of technologies such as encryption. This will allow banking systems to be provisioned more quickly, and more securely, making banking institutions more responsive and competitive.

A virtual private network (VPN), meanwhile, will make sure that there will be "no leakage of data and information between one bank to the other" to occur.

Rocke said that a cloud infrastructure would, in fact, offer the "highest security" and many financial institutions in the United States have already made use of it for their computing infrastructure.

"DataOne has been promoting the idea that banks should outsource infrastructures for 10 years because we believe that our company meets all the standard specific facilities and back-up systems for local and international banks, which have very stringent standards," he said.

DataOne meets the standards of EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA) when it comes to hosting credit card systems. It is also ISO 27001:2005 and ISO 9001:2008-certified for security standards. The company regularly renews this certification.

"Having this certification means that DataOne has an Information Security Management System that ensures customers are free from potential risks such as data system vulnerabilities. The strictest security controls are in place to protect customers’ data," Rocke said.

He added that not all IT providers have complied with this.

"DataOne, though, has covered all areas and scenarios where security lapses can happen," Rocke said. /JMD (FREEMAN)