Fidelity Information Services is looking to the public cloud to scale operations and reduce costs. 

FIS has nearly 60% of its operations on public cloud, Chief Executive Stephanie Ferris said during the tech provider’s Investor Day on May 7, adding that use of public cloud allows it “to unlock new geographies, new products” and scale operations quickly. 

The public cloud also saves Jacksonville, Fla.-based FIS money, she said, which can ultimately “change the cost structure of our company.”

Professional services giant Ernst & Young has found that “companies using [public] cloud-first paradigms save close to 15% to 20% compared to private cloud infrastructures,” Ragu Rajaram, global cloud consulting leader at EY, told Bank Automation News. “If the same firms continue to advance in cloud maturity by adopting efficient multi-cloud models, they can extend the savings by as much to 30% to 40% in comparison to private cloud.”  

A hybrid and multi-cloud approach

Many financial institutions are leaning into a hybrid cloud and multi-cloud approach.  

The hybrid approach is a mix of on-premises, private cloud and public cloud services with orchestration across platforms, Rajaram said. 

“This is because the public cloud feature offers a highly scalable architecture, while the private cloud element provides tight security for sensitive information,” he said. “The hybrid cloud also offers banks absolute control over systems, security and policies, making resources accessible from anywhere at any time.” 

JPMorgan is aiming to move 70% of its applications and 75% of its data to the public or private cloud by 2024, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in his 2023 letter to shareholders on April 8. 

The New York-based bank has a multi-cloud approach to avoid locking in with a single cloud service provider with cloud service providers and to enhance data protection and scalability, Dimon said. 

ING also has a hybrid cloud approach, where nearly 63% of the bank’s operations are on private cloud, Marco Eijsackers, head of the CIO office at ING, previously told BAN. 

The $967 billion bank will always keep some of its operations on the private cloud for efficiency and safety, Eijsackers said, noting that ING is expanding operations on the public cloud for scalability reasons. 

ING also has a multi-cloud approach, where it works with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, Eijsackers said. 

Said EY’s Rajaram: “Multi-cloud allows organizations to leverage the best pricing between [cloud service providers] for commodity and specialized cloud services. Multi-cloud helps to avoid vendor lock-in [and] reduces risks by having a more heterogenous computing, storage and networking base.”