In a paper released Monday, DTCC asserts that the capabilities, resiliency and security of services provided by cloud vendors has surpassed on-site capabilities.

As a result, the post-trade processing giant says it will evaluate opportunities to strategically expand the use of the cloud more broadly across its external services and applications "to reduce risk and cost and improve the resiliency and security of DTCC’s systems".

The organisation says that the cost and value of cloud computing technologies is challenging long-standing justifications for provisioning and/or sustaining individually owned and managed data centers.

“DTCC has been leveraging cloud services for almost five years and believes the cloud represents a viable alternative to corporate data centers,” says Robert Garrison, DTCC CIO. “We believe cloud computing has moved past a tipping point and that the security, scalability, resiliency, recoverability and cost of applications in the cloud are better than many private enterprises could achieve on their own. As a result, we will pursue a strategy of building a cloud ecosystem that supports best practices and standards."

He says the group will consult with regulators and stakeholders as it pushes forward: "Due to the critical nature of the services provided by DTCC, we will execute our cloud strategy in collaboration with key stakeholders, including clients and supervisors.”

A new report from Frost & Sullivan picks up the theme, suggesting that European banks will start to move core services to the cloud within the next three to five years.

“Start-ups using cloud at the core of their strategy are disrupting the way businesses are organized, forcing incumbents to rethink their cloud and data storage and usage strategies,” says digital transformation research analyst Deepali Sathe. “Emerging opportunities include new business models, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, and data analytics to launch innovative products and services that will increase convenience for consumers. As regulators step in with specific cloud-related guidelines, adoption is expected to accelerate.”