Journeying into the Metaverse: How Cloud Infrastructure and Data Are Paving the Way for the BFSI Industry

The Metaverse is near than it appears, and it is wide open for businesses to dig into its benefits. 

The global metaverse financial market is forecasted to grow by $50.37 billion from 2022-2026, accelerating at a CAGR of 20.93% during the forecast period. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social, and entertainment.

This prediction hints that the BFSI industry must gear up for the digital future.

The cloud is playing a major role in enabling this digital transformation in the BFSI sector. This article encapsulates the need for a data-driven cloud adoption strategy to maximize investment returns and accelerate digital innovation.

Let’s first understand where the industry stands regarding digital innovation and what’s in store for the future.

BFSI: Past, Present, and Future

Digital adoption in the BFSI industry has been on the rise for a decade now. But it received a desired push only after the pandemic. As a result, the industry is experiencing a colossal digital shift, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Finance and banking enterprises had to climb the ladder of digitalization to survive the pandemic’s impact and continue providing services to their customers.

The pandemic only showed the industry that change at a rapid pace is possible even in the most complex businesses. 

Newly launched fintech and digital banks are heading up and growing rapidly because of this transformation, as they are born with the silver spoon of technology. However, to pace up the innovation and join the bandwagon of Fintechs, others are adopting the latest technologies such as AI/ML, Cloud-native, IoT, Blockchain, and more to transform their IT infrastructure, meet customer needs, and stay ahead of the game. 

It has accelerated the adoption of Cloud and the latest technologies by established financial institutions currently working traditionally, as well as by new financial institutions that have become more confident in their ability to innovate digitally.

Cloud at the Forefront of Innovation

Cloud is a flag bearer of digital innovation! 

Digital transformation is not an easy journey—enterprises undergoing transformation face multiple failures on the way. In fact, according to a recent analysis, 87% of digital transformation programs fail to meet original expectations.

Formulating the right cloud adoption strategy and taking small steps towards innovating the infrastructure can help in combating the risks causing transformation failures. But how can the right Cloud strategy assist the BFSI industry in realizing its metaverse dreams? Let’s dig deeper.

Cloud in BFSI is still at its initial stage, even after accelerated adoption during a pandemic. According to analyst reports, cloud spending is only 5% to 15% of overall IT investment. However, predictions have it straight that a considerable number of workloads will be shifted to the Cloud in the future, and many innovations are on their way to including Cloud. The Cloud will unfold the true potential of the Metaverse by enabling digital innovation and making enterprises move to virtual reality.

Moving to the Cloud is easier said than done. 80-90% of cloud migration fails due to unplanned actions. Using data intelligently will be the key to making this journey to the Cloud, and ultimately from Cloud to Metaverse, effortless and effective. Let’s see how.

How is Data Shaping the Dream of Metaverse in BFSI

The banking and financial services industry has always relied heavily on data for its regular processes and operations. With the advent of the digital revolution, the importance of data has multiplied and will keep increasing. However, this data is often unstructured, making it difficult for enterprises to leverage it effectively. While moving this data to the Cloud, enterprises often lift and shift enterprise data without analyzing it. 

This is almost like a garbage-in-garbage-out approach, where data is moved mindlessly to the Cloud without any plan to leverage it. Financial services enterprises must look for robust data analytics tools to help structure the unstructured data across heterogenous environments. Advanced content and context analysis features can help identify business-sensitive data, ROT, and hot and cold data. This can help enterprises take necessary storage optimization, cost-savings, security, and compliance measures. 

Leaders in the BFSI sector are working to introduce a data culture into their systems by educating various functions and preparing them for the digital era. They must introduce training and development related to advanced technical skills in data management, BIG Data Analytics, Cloud, and more. But the efforts cannot be siloed and be looked at as short team initiatives. Bringing a data culture to reap maximum benefits requires a fusion of all isolated efforts and a robust long-term business strategy.

Microsoft Azure understands the pain involved in cloud migration, the unstructured data complexities, unskilled employees, and isolated processes. With a data-driven approach, Azure is making migrating to the Cloud easier for its customers, and the best part is that it is FREE.

Azure & StorageX at the Heart of Digital Innovation

Microsoft Azure introduced Azure File Migration Program to identify the risks and complexities in unstructured data migration and make it cost-effective. Under this program, Azure offers its customers an industry-leading file migration solution at ZERO COST. Data Dynamics’ StorageX is an award-winning cloud data migration software recommended by Microsoft. It provides a free, intelligent, swift, safe, and secure way to migrate petabytes of unstructured file and object data to the Azure cloud.

Click here to check out how Data Dynamics utilized the Azure File Migration Program to help one of the world’s seven multinational energy “supermajors” Fortune 50 companies accelerate its net zero emission goals while driving digital transformation.

Data Dynamics’ StorageX is the preferred Azure file migration solution for many reasons. Here are a few:

  1. Petabyte Scalability Across Heterogeneous Environments: Built for petabyte-scale and smaller environments, most of the solutions available in the market are only suited for smaller environments of 100TB or less. 
  2. Automated & Policy-Based Data Migration: Automated, policy-based file data migration from heterogeneous storage into the Azure Cloud, ensuring minimal risk with automatic access control and file security management.
  3. Automated Cutover: Namespace management abstracts a physical data storage environment into a logical view used in conjunction with migration policies to automatically update DFS namespace links that reference the old source to the new destination during the cutover phase.
  4. API Integration: Robust API ecosystem provides unique API-based automation and orchestration for process and workflow modernization.
  5. Stubless / Always Direct Native Access to Data: There is No Gateway, No File Virtualization, No Proprietary Namespace, and No Stubs.
  6. Preservation of Security Attributes: Preserves all the critical security attributes that ensure your data is migrated without any exposure to unauthorized groups that should not have access to your data because of the change in the underlying platform.
  7. Comprehensive Data Management Solution: Enterprises can unlock end-to-end data management capabilities such as Data Analytics, Security, and Compliance using StorageX.

To read more about why StorageX is better than traditional migration solutions, check out this comparative study

This program offers free software licensing, onboarding sessions, and full data Dynamics support team access. The process to get started with the Azure migration using StorageX is simple. You can kick-start with three simple steps:

Step 1: Register your migration project with Data Dynamics (include Azure subscription ID).

Step 2: Get introduced to the Data Dynamics customer success team to enable the StorageX and generate the sponsored license.

Step 3: Attend a short onboarding session on StorageX and data management solutions for data analytics, sharing, security, and compliance. Click here to register.

To know more about the Azure File Migration program, visit our website or contact us at azure@datdyn.com or click here to book a meeting.

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