The Cloud has become a buzz word today as more companies recognise its potential. Cloud services like those offered by Google are now widely in use by everyone, with Gmail being many people's first choice for email management and providers like SugarSync being used for document access and file backups. By allowing users to access their data through a web portal, these Cloud services allow us to save computer memory, time and money by storing data remotely. Increasingly, banks are starting to make a shift to the Cloud wherever they can as Cloud technologies become ever more secure and robust. Over 70% of banking executives have expressed an interest in investing in the Cloud in the future, a number that is growing year on year. Other industries have already transitioned into using the Cloud, however banking organisations and financial services have taken longer to embrace this technology due to concerns over compliance and data security. A need for rigorous security and carefully controlled access has meant that the financial world has waited to be certain of the safety of modern technology before actioning any changes. The main impetus behind this new shift to the Cloud has primarily been down to pressure in the industry to consolidate the costs of IT. In just the same way that businesses in other industry sectors have realised that they can save on costs by switching their companies to a cloud computing system, so banks have now realised that the cloud is presenting a strong business case for cost effectiveness and good value for money.

When companies shift over to the Cloud, the way in which their services are managed and delivered also changes. Instead of using a fixed physical platform over the long term, a more flexible and agile approach is encouraged by Cloud computing. Migration is no longer a one off activity and a new mindset is needed towards portability and workloads. With the need to address the growing demand on data input, the banking industry has grown to realise that a modern data centre must be able to reflect the constant inflow and outflow of data across an increasingly diverse environment. Technology that has no need of like-system migration is much more efficient and allows banks to progress forward with their business development without any worry over disruptions caused by a changing infrastructure. Migration to Clouds has become a much more viable option for today's banks and it can really profit their business in the long term.