Microsoft to launch financial services cloud on November 1, 2021

Microsoft has confirmed that its financial services-focused industry cloud will be officially available on November 1, 2021.

The news comes eight months after the company revealed it was launching three new industry clouds this year — for manufacturing, not-for-profits, and financial services. Today’s announcement means the financial-focused cloud is the first of the three to receive an official launch date, though Microsoft has previously introduced an industry cloud for health care and its retail-focused incarnation currently sits in public preview. 

In the cloud

Sector-specific clouds are much more than a marketing ploy. The financial industry, in particular, often has very specific needs in terms of security and regulatory compliance, which is why Microsoft’s new industry cloud has tools and services to assess risk and combat fraud. Moreover, the cloud will include features to help retail banks create a unified customer profile by merging financial, behavioral, and demographic data, in addition to offering customer onboarding tools to streamline loan applications.

With cloud infrastructure spending hitting the stratosphere, the battle of the “big three” cloud companies continues as each giant ramps up its industry-specific cloud offerings. Amazon recently launched FinSpace, a data analytics service for the financial industry, and data warehousing giant Snowflake announced its first industry-specific data cloud, also targeting the financial services industry.

While Microsoft has now confirmed that its financial services cloud will be landing in a little over three weeks, it hasn’t yet revealed when its other industry clouds will be hitting general availability.

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/05/microsoft-to-launch-financial-services-cloud-on-november-1-2021/