The social isolation caused by the recent public health crisis has brought about greater and more efficient use of digital channels and applications, which has allowed the banking sector to continue its operations through user services that do not require in-person transactions. This has allowed availability in the financial sector, while mitigating the risk of infections caused by human interaction.
As the months of the pandemic passed, these innovations went from an emergency solution to tools that are frequently used by consumers of all kinds. Most importantly, they provide flexibility in terms of scheduling, with users able to carry out transactions at their convenience.
What statistics say about the new reality
According to the 10th Payment Methods Trends Report, recently released by Minsait Payments, over 50% of adult banking customers with internet (ABI) in the eleven countries surveyed (four in Europe and seven in Latin America) have reduced or reduced eliminated cash payments for goods and services.
This has undoubtedly led to a paradigm shift for the financial sector, which demonstrates the need to ensure service continuity as a critical element of brand reputation, meeting clients’ banking needs and supporting the economy.
This last point is not an exaggeration. Any failure in the technological infrastructure that supports banking will result in ATMs not working, credit card transactions not being processed and e-commerce businesses losing sales. Total chaos!
This hypothetical (but not improbable) scenario shows the need for reliable data center and edge infrastructure support, including power back-up in the event of electrical shutdowns to help entities across the sector to store enough energy to ensure the continuous operation of their critical equipment.
This need is highlighted in a recent investigation from the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Vertiv, entitled “Data center downtime at the core and edge: a survey of frequency, duration and attitudes”.
The study shows that the 132 core data centers included in the study experienced, on average, 2.4 total losses of power every year in their facilities and 10 additional isolated downtime events on specific racks or servers.
In addition, the 1,667 network edge locations included in the study experienced an average of 2.7 unforeseen power losses per year.
These figures are alarming for an area like the financial sector, which needs its data centers to operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year.
It should be mentioned that, while downtime can have a number of potential causes, including cybersecurity, software or hardware errors, power outages are the most common. Deploying a reliable uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and a strong backup strategy can help banks to store enough power for continuous operation of their critical equipment during unplanned power-related outages.
In addition, maintenance services can play an important role in maintaining the health of the power backup and other infrastructure support, with integrated programs of periodic preventive maintenance (PM) visits, 24x7 emergency service and various complementary options for power equipment (IR scanning, electric board maintenance and testing of primary and secondary circuit boards), as well as cooling optimization services for precision air conditioning units.
In the financial sector, maintenance decisions are based on three basic elements: understanding the value of maintenance, calculating its risk factors and weighing the consequences of equipment failure, some of which have been mentioned already.
To conclude, it is worth noting that today’s banking is now more flexible and accessible, allowing transactions of all kinds to be carried out conveniently using mobile applications and devices (especially smartphones). This, in addition to the accelerated digital transformation brought about by the pandemic, has allowed companies in the financial sector to bring their products to the largest number of people possible. To improve system availability and be competitive in a growing market, these companies need to use reliable infrastructure support and services - and partner with experienced infrastructure experts who understand the challenges that come with digital transformation.
