Cryptocurrency. Online banking. digital, branchless banks.
The Philippines is at the cusp of a paradigm shift in the way people do financial transactions. From the teller, to the ATM and now to fully online, most banks, financial services and insurance institutions (BFSI) are scrambling to ensure that their business is ready to do e-business.
While this shift is not as sudden as the flip of a pancake, everyone saw this coming. It was an inevitable progression.
The latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Circular 1105 that opened up for fully online, branchless banking put all plans on overdrive. This disruptive form of e-banks’ setup is putting all traditional banking operations away.
From protecting the vault to protecting the online resources. From teller to online portal. From cash withdrawals to online transfers. From paper bills to cryptocurrency.
And the challenge now is that all these new “e-storefronts” or “e-tellers” are significantly supported by IT technologies and solutions. And data centers are at the front and center, providing rackspace facilities, connectivity and security solutions.
Compute/server resources. Most established banks of today, for reasons of control, confidentiality and security, operate their own data centers (or part of it). It is a tried and tested formula, they have an armada of real estate facilities where they can host and protect their IT infrastructure in the same way as the physical currencies and other valuables in their coffers. But as more and more “new money” resides in digital form rather than in notes form, the future of banking will then look for less and less physical need for vaults and more need for secure rackspace server facilities.
Data centers operate in the same essence as banks, you’re better off putting your resources to those who know how to run it best. Data centers have larger and more comprehensive operations than any single bank’s own DC facilities, thus, they often have the leverage and means to run more stringent, reliable, available and cost-effective IT infrastructure.
And to negate issues on confidentiality, DC operators like Beeinfotech PH offers areas where a bank’s colocated racks can be caged or isolated. Even more, they are also able to retain significant control and autonomy over their resources. This collocated approach then gives BFSI’s the incentive to plan towards reducing their physical branches.
Connectivity. Most banks operate on a you-are-my-backup setup, that is, each branch is a Disaster Recovery (DR) site of another. While this is an effective approach, as it is now being discussed, the era of physical banking is becoming less and less relevant in the future.
This means that the future belongs less to branch banking. The online-ness of transactions means that accounts are less associated with a site or a branch. The physical connection is now an internet connection. Connectivity is therefore an ever consuming concern for all, on both the BFSIs and the depositor clients.
Data Centers play a key role in ensuring maximum access by ensuring that banks that colocate their server racks in the facility have access to ALL internet service options. This alleviates the concern that banks will need to subscribe to all ISPs at the same time. If their selected connectivity providers are suddenly unavailable, data center providers like Beeinfotech PH can reconnect them to another provider or service on the fly.
Network Security. Of all the IT elements that banks are always uneasy about, security would certainly be on top of their list. While the banks are experts in physical security, digital and network security is an aspect where they certainly need persistent help from IT providers.
Data centers like Beeinfotech PH are in the best position to assist banks’ cybersecurity needs. While banks have all the financial might at their disposal to procure all the software and hardware solutions out there to ward off against threats, it is that constant, real-time and massive cat-and-mouse game against the hackers that is crucial. And this is not something that banks can do alone. This time, more is better.
Data centers like Beeinfotech PH operate a wide facing Network and Security Operations Center that has greater visibility on the world wide web, and is thus in the best position to monitor, mitigate and fix any vulnerabilities. While it does not and will never render a bank’s SOC obsolete, it forms a two-punch combo with the bank’s security experts in ensuring that there are multiple layers of protection. Beeinfotech PH even comes with leasable NOC/SOC rooms so banks can have areas that have the same level of availability as the racks that they maintain.
Another point worth noting is on network issues like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that hamper network operations by funneling up to Tbps of attacks towards a bank's network. Using a data center’s massive network infrastructure that has the nimble capability to reroute voluminous bad traffic on the fly, the crippling effects of DDoS are mitigated.
Beeinfotech PH is ready to support BFSIs in their digital banking transformation journey. Being telco neutral and ISP grade, the facility offers rackspace colocation, connectivity, IT security and professional services.
For more information, visit https://www.beeinfotech.ph/ or email info@beeinfotech.ph