Cloud investment is a priority for financial services leaders in 2025 as they move forward with their roadmaps for AI-driven innovation, business continuity plans, personalized experiences and overall modernization.  

“For a financial institution, cloud plays a tremendous role as part of their modernization strategy,” Dmitri Furman, global head of public cloud at $2.4 trillion Citi, said Jan. 28 during the webinar “Best practices in cloud migration for financial services” hosted by Bank Automation News. 

Listen to Google Cloud’s Zac Maufe, top right, Cockroach Labs’ Spencer Kimball, bottom left, and Citi’s Dmitri Furman, bottom right, discuss cloud migration during Bank Automation News’ “Best practices in cloud migration for financial services” webinar.(Video/Bank Automation News)

Watch our webinar on cloud migration here. 

Cloud revenue continues to grow as cloud providers report their latest earnings. 

• Google Cloud revenue increased 30% year over year to $12 billion; and

• Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $40.9 billion, up 21% YoY.

Amazon Web Services also continued to sign new AWS agreements in the fourth quarter with companies including Intuit, PayPal and Chime Financial, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said during Amazon’s Feb. 6 Q4 earnings call. “We haven’t lost our focus on core modernization of companies’ technology infrastructure from on-premise to the cloud.”

How should an FI approach its cloud journey?

BAN asked executives at cloud provider AWS, product engagement platform WaveCX, cloud-based marketing platform Pulsate and financial services advisory firm Finov8r what questions financial institutions should consider asking when strategizing their cloud investment.

Here’s what they said:

1. How can cloud investments enable financial institutions to deliver more personalized digital experiences to customers?
2. What role does cloud infrastructure play in enhancing AI-driven tools, such as generative search and customer engagement platforms?
3. How should FIs approach data governance and compliance when integrating cloud solutions into their digital engagement strategies?
4. What considerations should FIs make for scalability and flexibility when adopting cloud services to support rapid innovation?
5. How can cloud technologies streamline the delivery of omnichannel personalized content while ensuring system reliability and data security?
6. What other parts of the business can leverage investment in cloud?
7. Are we prepared to be locked in for a specific feature and the costs/effort required to remediate should it fail or become unavailable?
8. Have we invested in staff training to make the most of our technical investment in cloud?
9. Have we reviewed our business continuity and reevaluated our risk assessments?
10. What are we expecting this to enable for our business over the next five years? Next 10 years?
11. How can commercial banks leverage cloud-based AI to enhance credit underwriting and risk assessment while ensuring regulatory compliance and data security?
12. What role does cloud investment play in enabling commercial banks to scale AI-driven automation for faster loan approvals, fraud detection, and real-time treasury management without sacrificing control or operational resilience?
13. Is your cloud migration strategy aligned with your business and technology team’s needs and ambitions?
14. How can cloud transition add value to other parts of your businesses by adding new tools like gen AI?
15. Ask your cloud provider how can they aid in your data and application migration while keeping data security as a priority?

Register here for Bank Automation Summit 2025, taking place March 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn. View the full event agenda here.