
Healthcare IT:
The financial industry embraces intelligent infrastructure

Banks, insurers, and other financial services (FS) organizations are modernizing their networks to support their digital transformation. But many are uncertain of the right path to follow.
Five lessons from our research can help IT leaders at financial organizations steer network modernization in the right direction.
Modernize to stay competitive
Many industry IT executives doubt their networks can adequately support
new technologies, like AI and robotic process automation (RPA)—and may
not even support some existing technologies
Less than 1 in 5 (19%) believe their network can reliably support AI and RPA use cases today†
Nearly 6 in 10
(58%) believe their networks can
support data analytics use cases,
at best, “to some extent”†

Address the strategy deficit
Many FS companies are undertaking network modernization
without a clear strategy
In 3 years, more than 6 in 10
respondents’ networks (63%)
will feature edge computing
capabilities, 6 in 10 (60%) will
feature cloud-based application
infrastructure, and more than
4 in 10 (42%) will feature SD-WAN†
But nearly 5 in 10 (46%) have
yet to develop a clear strategy
to guide the transition; only
just over 1 in 10 (12%) state
categorically that they have one†

Prepare for open architecture
FS IT leaders must make sure their networks enable participation
in open forms of innovation
More than 6 in 10
(64%) say the development
and use of external APIs will
be a major technology focus†
Nearly 5 in 10
(47%) expect to rely largely
on open-source standards
for emerging technologies
in the future†
But just 2 in 10 (22%) will
treat open architectures
as an investment priority
over the next 3 years†
Invest to be ready for growing
computing-power needs
IT leaders must be sure their networks can cope with the data- and
bandwidth-intensive technologies they are deploying

Nearly 7 in 10 executives (69%) expect demands on their network for computing power to continue expanding over the next 3 years. Nearly 3 in 10 (28%), however, expect no change to computing-power needs†


Get the security balance right
FS IT leaders must address cybersecurity concerns without holding
back organizations’ network modernization programs
Cybersecurity concerns are seen as a barrier to modernization
by nearly 7 in 10
(67%) of FS IT leaders†
SD-WAN can help by
centralizing security;
nearly half (48%) view
this as a chief benefit of
the technology†

