The demand for digital services is growing, and companies are needing digital infrastructure capable of securely transferring and managing data with robust network capabilities. From healthcare to finance, consumers are making the digital transformation to mobile platforms. In 2020, it was reported that more than 14.5 million Americans considered digital banking their primary way of personal banking. It’s important that financial entities understand how to pivot their IT infrastructure to meet evolving customer demands.

Since PayPal emerged in 1998, the finance industry has seen more banks strengthen their online presence. As a result, an increasing number of customers began switching to mobile banking with the heightened popularity and performance ease of smartphones. Now banks of all sizes are creating mobile apps allowing customers to access and manage their money at any time. The enhanced personalized banking experience is driving increased customer service expectations while application limitations continue at the same pace. Seamless experiences are now imperative for financial institutions to keep their existing customers while attracting new ones.

The demand for increased bandwidth and data storage space is growing. Internet and wireless connectivity are no longer a luxury, but a necessity for consumers. Traditionally, many banks have relied on a variety of network topologies depending on the size of the institution. However, VPN, WAN, and SD-WAN solutions still require a secure and stable connection. If a bank’s networking capabilities are not up to par, customer experiences will fall short and suffer from latency and inferior performance.

When it comes to ensuring cost efficiency, security, and geographic advantages, a financial institution’s data center and connectivity provider can make-or-break digital transformation decisions. They need to ensure their providers offer physical security and redundancy. It’s important that data center providers deliver additional measures to ensure data and network uptime is insulated against natural disasters, outages, and hackers. Fast and secure data storage and transport are the primary foundation for financial institutions. Once that foundation is reinvented to suit the new world, banks and customers alike can look forward to a world of financial success.