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No time for running in place!
Amid stories about failed security, obsolete applications and legacy systems, there's evidence that vendors are lacing up their shoes to keep the industry ahead.
May 18, 2015 by Richard Buckle — Founder and CEO, Pyalla Technologies, LLC
My March 26 post "Where do your ATMs connect?" centered on the upcoming announcement by HP about the general availability of their new NonStop X high-end, fault tolerant system. On one hand, it's good to see vendors like HP continuing to invest in systems such as NonStop. On the other hand, is this progress or are we simply running in place? Are changes to the hardware as important as changes to platforms and solutions? Or is HP simply responding to the demands of more performance for less cost?
It was OmniPayments Inc. CEO Yash Kapadia who aroused my interest in the vendor's perspective. After all, Yash is one of the leading lights when it comes to deploying NonStop systems in highly interesting configurations; hybrids combining NonStop with Linux; more traditional service-bureau style operations; and, recently, from clouds populated with NonStop systems as a true SaaS.
"As a vendor working in diverse markets where volumes and budgets vary widely, having such options to present my solution really helps me get through the front door," Yash said. "OmniPayments may not have the cachet of some of the bigger payments solutions providers, but that doesn't mean we are less viable as a partner, something even the biggest solutions vendors are becoming aware of lately.
"Are we the catalyst for change? The work we did with hybrids clearly was a case of presenting a better ROI to our customers so yes, in a way, and as small as some may consider it to be, we are influencing the shape of systems now coming to market."
But what of other vendors? Were they, too, the driving factors behind new systems? And were they helping customers to do a lot more than own one?
In the post referenced above, I talked about meeting up at ATMIA and BAI Payments Connect conferences with former colleagues Doug Parr, chief revenue officer at Prairie Cloudware, and Dena Hamilton of BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.
As Parr explained:
What Prairie Cloudware is focused on can best be described as infrastructure or plumbing — the stuff financial institutions everywhere depend on today to hook the networks of devices together with the array of systems typically found in data centers. More precisely, the company is focused on that plumbing that is needed for financial institutions to directly support digital payments for their customers.
[We're] not [purveying] mobile devices themselves — or even the wallets now coming to market in support of mobile devices — but rather [we're] supporting banks and credit unions who want their own brand highly visible no matter whose mobile wallet is being supported.
At the heart of what is being provided is technology that provides a layer of abstraction so that FIs don't have to 'boil the ocean' to get to the metadata pertaining to users of digital payments and mobile wallet products.
[Our contribution is] to ensure FIs can get to market in a timely and competitive manner; if you have a three-year plan these days to roll out a product in this area, then you have already lost the battle.
With Prairie Cloudware, the goal is to support all parties who want to go to market with their own brand top of wallet in such a way that they can still action the behavior detected for each and every wallet user they come into contact with.
Options! Choice! Intercept libraries and layers of abstraction! It's clear that today, so much is being done to ensure that those with big ideas can implement quickly, no matter whether it's leveraging clouds and hybrids — or just more advanced plumbing.
On the other hand, was Hamilton's observation:
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence is a significant player in fraud prevention. What BAE have done through utilization of their own intellectual property together with key acquisitions is to tackle compliance, risk management, fraud (detection and prevention) and cyber security ... and do so in a manner that is agnostic of the application — be it for financial institutions, retailers, insurance and healthcare and the underlying system and infrastructure; be it on premise or in the cloud or hybrid combinations of the two.
Again, options, choice and, yes, clearly a layer of abstraction or two — and, not surprisingly, be it on premises or in the cloud or in hybrid combinations of the two.
When I dug into specifics and began perusing the BAE website, Hamilton came back with a more complete explanation of NetReveal, "a proven solution that we believe revolutionizes the detection of fraud and organized crime."
When it comes to the financial services sector, Hamilton said:
NetReveal is an enterprise risk-management solution that uncovers networks of suspicious behavior by identifying and scoring networks of customers and parties across an organization's complete portfolio of products and brands.
In the Government sector, NetReveal enables government and law enforcement agencies to generate intelligence to identify and counter those who threaten the safety of the public, the security of the state or who seek to commit serious and organized crime.
Clearly a case of not running in place, as BAE Systems responds to the needs of some very nervous CIOs.
There are many more vendors I could reference here following conversations at recent trade shows, but the point is that it's very clear that customers together with some very perceptive vendors are making sure that providers such as HP continue to work with them to drive down costs, and improve productivity and innovation even as they open up to providing a greater variety of choices.
Progress is being made, and for all FIs — including everyone with an interest in ATMs — as the ether continues to be filled with stories about failed security, obsolete applications and legacy systems, there's little evidence to support any of these folks not tying the laces of their running shoes!
photo istock
About Richard Buckle
Richard Buckle is the founder and CEO of Pyalla Technologies, LLC. He has enjoyed a long association with the Information Technology (IT) industry as a user, vendor, and more recently, as an industry commentator, thought leader, columnist and blogger. Richard participates in the HPE VIP Community where he is part of their influencer team.
