CIO OPINION more about these challenges , we recently conducted a survey with Gatepoint Research involving senior decision-makers to gain insight into the current state of financial services technology and the future direction for organisations in this sector . Here are some of the key findings :

Financial services tech landscape

Although financial services businesses are making a steady move to the cloud for application delivery , on-premises data centres continue to play an important role .

While adoption of public cloud infrastructure is strong , with almost half of those surveyed hosting applications primarily in the cloud , most respondents ( 58 %) continue to rely primarily on their private on-premises data centre for application delivery . Just 35 % of organisations described their environment as a hybrid cloud , though with an emphasis on their own private data centre . This shows that even as transformation continues , the traditional data centre remains prominent in the technology strategy of financial services organisations .

That said , the balance between on-premises and cloud infrastructure may well shift soon . When respondents were asked about their plans for the coming year , 57 % of decisionmakers reported that they intend to move more applications to the cloud .

Ransomware and PII lead security concerns

Today , financial services organisations face a broad spectrum of security threats , including many being targeted at sensitive customer data . The survey highlighted that organisations ’ biggest security concerns or consequences were ransomware ( 57 %), personally identifiable information ( PII ) data theft ( 55 %) and phishing or fake sites ( 49 %).

While threats to customers and their data are seen as the highest risk , dangers to the company ’ s brand image and reputation were not far behind . From those polled , 38 % of leaders cited concerns about hacking and cyber defacement , tied with brand damage and loss of confidence . Nearly as many ( 37 %) were concerned about DDoS attacks , which can undermine a firm ’ s perception among customers through impaired service quality and customer experience . Meanwhile , insider attacks remain an issue , named by 28 % of respondents , if not quite at the same level as most external threats .

To address the changing security landscape , many organisations have started initiatives around the Zero Trust model , in which traditional concepts of secured zones , perimeters and network segments are updated with a new understanding that a threat can come from anywhere or anyone inside or outside the organisation . As of June 2020 , 41 % of respondents www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO 45