Alan Kay, one of the earliest pioneers of personal computing said, “Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born.” And with due respect to Mr. Kay, I will take it a bit further 
and say that technology is anything that wasn’t around when you celebrated your last birthday. Given the rate at which end-user computing (EUC) technology is evolving, banks that thrive over the next decade will look very different than the success stories of 10 years ago.
It is true that most banks are not technology companies (yet), however during a recent discussion with IT leaders from the banking industry, we gathered key insights from them as they explore new ways to approach their business, serve their customers, empower their employees and secure data with the implementation of disruptive technologies.
During this discussion, Enterprise IT leaders revealed 4 key reasons why they’re exploring technology change within their financial institution:
1. It’s All About Apps
Given that some of the world’s largest financial institutions rely on thousands of internal apps to run their businesses, the way they handle application lifecycle management has become very complex and difficult to manage. Moreover, the proliferation of new and legacy applications makes managing, updating, delivering and consume applications on the multitude of devices more difficult.
Watch the video below to understand how financial institutions can simplify and streamline application lifecycle management.
With VMware App Volumes, banks can help eliminate the pain of application packaging with instant delivery, update and retirement of applications and user environment settings.
2. Mobility & Secure Digital Workspaces
According to a recent betanews report, financial services is one of the top two industries most likely to adopt enterprise mobility in 2016.
As mobile devices continue to proliferate in the workplace for efficiency, productivity, and customer service, we saw a great deal of interest from our customers to provide a single workspace. This digital workspace, powered by a simple and secure enterprise platform, delivers and manages any app on any device with conditional access policies.
With VMware Workspace ONE, financial institutions can address employee preferences for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs. The platform also helps satisfy the need for mobility inside and outside of the brick-and-mortar branch or corporate headquarters, while continuing to provide data security.
View this video to find out how Washington Trust Bank is enabling workforce mobility with iron-clad data security.
3. Windows 10
Windows 10 is Microsoft’s first truly mobile operating system that delivers a seamless user experience across tablets, desktops and laptops.
Some banks we spoke with are content to wait or take a staggered approach to Windows 10. However, there are early adopters, like Bank of America, that are optimistic about the process, even though it is a massive undertaking given the sheer multitude of Windows devices within the organization.
Microsoft’s latest operating system together with VMware AirWatch Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) enables financial institutions to alleviate device deployment, management and security concerns, while enabling IT focus on transforming business processes and driving business value.
4. Data Security
The challenge in the financial services ecosystem is that no chain is stronger than its weakest link and sometimes the weakest link happens to be the employee per a recent industry article. 
And the thought was shared by one of our banking customers’ who said that one of their biggest challenges was educating their end users and getting them to understand the risks with device use.
To improve the security of the workspace, apps and sensitive customer data, financial institutions can implement desktop or app virtualization. When done correctly, data is no longer susceptible on end device, but repatriated to the enterprise data center and securely remoted.
Read this case study to understand how Flushing Bank has improved security for customer data and simplified desktop administration
Technology You Can Bank On
We are privileged to work with CIO’s and IT leaders who are not simply focusing on keeping the lights on and driving cost efficiencies, but are also change instigators and business co-creators.
To learn more about how VMware enables financial institutions reshape the way EUC services are provisioned, delivered and consumed, please visit us here.
