A national information service company has ranked a Paducah-based banking technology company as one of the best cloud service providers in the world. Penton Media reports Computer Services, Inc., or CSI, is 18th among the world’s top 100 cloud service providers based on revenue growth. For context, DropBox ranked 13th and Google ranked 7th.
CSI Managed Services president and general manager David Culbertson said cloud providers help fill other institutions’ Information Technology personnel needs.
“Cloud providers can efficiently handle IT duties when internal resources run out. And by trusting their IT infrastructure to a cloud provider, financial institutions gain various operational benefits, including improved disaster recovery and simplified management,” Culbertson said. “CSI also helps financial institutions remain compliant with stringent regulatory guidance, because our company is held to the same strict standards and audit requirements.”
Murray State Computer Science and Information Professor Victor Raj said cloud services have become popular among smaller financial institutions that cannot afford their own IT department. He said even though cloud services, like any web-based service, are at risk from hackers, financial institutions won’t be turning away from them any time soon.
“People, once they are used to certain features that their bank is providing, suddenly they cannot do without them,” Raj said. “And so even if something is hacked, things will be a little quiet, people will be wary for a little while, and then eventually they will get back to their old habits.”
The top 100 cloud providers combined generated $23.4 billion in combined revenues in 2013, up 44 percent from 2012. Culbertson said revenue increased 9 percent between 2012 and 2013.