State of Cloud Adoption in Europe – AFME and Protiviti Paper

Preparing the path for Cloud as a critical third-party solution

Since the publication of the initial Cloud paper by Protiviti and Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) in November 2019, and our subsequent paper on cloud resilience in 2021, Cloud adoption has continued to increase, with the use of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and Cloud technology becoming more integral to the continued growth of financial institutions (FIs).

However, overly complex and fragmented regulation is hampering FIs’ further Cloud adoption and will affect competition in the Cloud marketplace. This environment could lead to the adoption of less efficient and resilient solutions and have implications for innovation as well as the safety and security of the financial sector.

Our 2022 paper entitled ‘Preparing the path for Cloud as a critical third-party solution’ sets out key challenges that FIs are experiencing in their Cloud adoption journey and impacting their ability to fully leverage the potential of Cloud technology. This paper outlines recommendations in the following four areas:

1. Concentration of Cloud Services
2. Regulatory Complexity
3. Localisation
4. Management of Disruption in the Cloud

Download the report full report. We look forward to discussing the findings and recommendations from this paper with industry participants and continue to support Cloud adoption in capital markets.