A framework for cloud Banking

Abstract

The Cloud has today become a buzz-word and is in the centre of almost all business and technology forums. Cloud opportunities have continued to expand with the penetration and reliability of Internet allowing more and more consumption of things beyond organizations firewalls. The banking sector like other industries has over the last decade continued to evaluate the impact and necessity to offer certain banking services on the cloud and since banking simply deals with wealth it carries a huge baggage of unique and sensitive features (including the taking and deposits and Lending of money) whereby any changes to such features are viewed through glasses of concern. This study has established that despite fast cloud evolution and computing capabilities in the banking sector there has not been evidence of significant adoption of cloud services due to demand for status quo, security, availability, confidentiality issues as well as lack of Vendor trust and acceptable cloud banking framework particularly in the Kenyan banking market. This study therefore strives to ensure that the cloud computing technology is understood and the benefits accruing from adopting this technology are clearly documented. The benefits raining from the cloud have been v clearly presented to enable banks understand how cloud banking in particular would enable 1" . them achieve economies while using clo1'ld application. The study was conducted through a cross sectional survey with data collected from representative banks out of the 44 Kenyan banks using questionnaire and interview techniques. Data analyzed led to the conclusion that there is a clear appetite for adopting cloud banking in Kenya although several factors remain ~ . on the way to achieving this objective and they include the absence of an adoption framework, security issues, data availability issues, confidentiality and lack of vendor trust. This dissertation therefore outlines all possible cloud options available for bank adoption, the benefits accruing from them and finally an elaborate Adoption Framework for Cloud Banking in the Kenyan banking market.