'Security concerns slow down cloud adoption'

MUMBAI, INDIA: Cloud computing has the potential to offer governments, enterprises and individuals greater choice and flexibility, at the same time spurring significant gains in efficiency, lower IT costs, as well as creating online platforms and incentives for innovation. Cloud is all about saving money that redundant IT used to consume. However, cloud adoption is not on the expected track, due to the fear caused by the series of security breaches in the recent past

Pushpinder Singh, Bank of India's deputy general manager of information technology department, talks to Pankaj Maru of CyberMedia News about cloud adoption in Indian banking and finance sector, technology trends and IT spend

What are your views on cloud adoption in India?

Pushpinder: I think cloud adoption will definitely pick up. To begin with, it will start with private cloud and then move on to public. But as far as the banking and finance sector is concerned it will be a slow take off because the financial sector is normally paranoid about security concerns. And when it comes to cloud, people start questioning its security. Though cloud computing is essential for public sector units, its adoption will take some time.

Which are the emerging technologies in your view?

Pushpinder: Coming from the banking and finance sector and also representing a public sector unit, I think most of the banks have already deployed core banking solutions. So, the next logical step for banking sector is to focus on technology initiatives like Enterprise Data Warehousing (EDW), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Single Customer View.

Being a public sector unit in the banking vertical, will your organizational IT budget see any changes?

Pushpinder: I think our IT spend is going to increase because we have a lot of catching-up to do.