It’s a safe assumption to say that banking is a heavily regulated industry. Regulatory compliance is a major consideration for small community banks as they expand their geographic reach and scale operations beyond just a few branches. Audits by federal regulators, state agencies and industry watchdog groups ensure that consumers’ personal information is protected and secured from fraud. There needs to be better IT management for banks.
Bank regulators require that financial institutions have a reliable process in place to ensure that all business systems are patched correctly and protected from external threats. Better IT management for banks that is not only cost-effective but also protects their most valuable asset, even more valuable than cash on hand – customers’ personal and financial information – is critical.
To eliminate the distance factor in their IT management strategy, community banks can deploy a remote and automatic systems management solution that delivers complete visibility into every server and PC on the network, regardless of their physical locations. By accessing any system from a central management console, IT staff can proactively monitor and maintain the IT environment, plugging potential security holes and availability issues before they become a serious problem.
Bank IT administrators can actively monitor systems in any of a bank’s branch offices from the main data center. When Microsoft issues a new patch, they can first test the software on a machine in the data center and then distribute it accordingly. Patches that would have taken days or even weeks to distribute can be distributed efficiently in minutes. Software deployments can be accomplished in the same way. New versions of banking applications can be deployed seamlessly in all branches at once, eliminating a phased approach and ensuring that all employees are using consistent software versions.
A remote IT management solution for banks can alert administrators of changes to any system that may represent potential data breaches or security risks. It could also identify software that shouldn’t be on the network, including spyware and personal software programs. By proactively monitoring and maintaining all systems on a bank’s distributed network, an automated systems management tool can ensure that the bank’s customer information is protected while demonstrating a high degree of systems integrity to bank regulators. The bank also enjoys the benefits of managing compliance cost effectively, without the need for a mobile IT workforce. Now that’s better IT management for banks!
