A focus on Luxemburg: Data, cloud, cybersecurity: one tapestry, not three silos

First featured by the American Chamber of Commerce, Luxemburg by George Ralph

Over the last fifty years, Luxembourg has gone from strength to strength in the industries of investing, private banking, insurance and corporate lending. The end result is that the Grand Duchy has gained itself an important role in the financial sector in Europe. Firms based out of Luxembourg need to consider the same operational IT issues as other global financial centres: notably those related to data, cloud and cybersecurity.

In light of recent trends and the ripple effect of the pandemic, statistics in cybersecurity have revealed an increase in hacked and breached data. This, alongside an increased number of firms implementing a télétravail workplace, the financial sector is at greater risk of cyber attacks.

By consequence, today’s market sees a landscape whereby hedge fund firms (especially emerging firms) and their C-suite managers are met with operational challenges, which, when addressed properly, both protect and propel the enterprise. Hedge fund managers are confronted with a perfect storm of pressures from technology, regulation and of course, competition.

The financial industry in the Grand Duchy already employs over 50,000 people and the Luxembourg government and financial authorities are renowned for having a sector with a superior regulatory framework due to the country’s willingness to continually review itself in order to remain at the forefront of the fund management industry.

In order to stay ahead, a key focus for firms in Luxembourg in 2022 will be to manage the pressures of cybersecurity, the management of data and cloud. As alternative investment enterprises continue to wrestle with this challenge, astute managers recognise interoperability between data, the cloud and cybersecurity. Properly framed, the infrastructure question is not: “what is our infrastructure doing?” but: “how can we use our infrastructure to further business growth?”

Being able to answer this question empowers regulated firms to establish success, greater efficiency and productivity, reduced cost and risk mitigation when it comes to their data management. A key consideration for success in 2022 will be to consider data, cloud, and cybersecurity as an organic whole rather than as separate silos.

In the current complex global environment, achieving an holistic view of this three sided problem lies in having a comprehensive service suite rather than a functional/task approach to operations that incorporates the following:

• Managed data
• Public or Private Cloud
• Managed cybersecurity security & compliance
• Managed detection and response
• Managed application services
• IT service management.

Having this sophisticated approach can stand funds in good stead. However, such an approach has to to be supported by service, support and guidance across the board. In the next year and beyond, it will be integral for firms to be able to drive automation, streamline processes, and increase visibility of their data. This should be done with critical business strategies in mind. Once data is architected properly, cloud can be made to measure solutions that incorporate current systems and practices – creating a layered and secure cloud structure. This implementation can be scaled to manage growth – especially as digitisation is increasingly becoming the operational norm.

The final consideration that firms need to take into account when it comes to cybersecurity is to be able to keep ahead of the ever growing sophistication of rogue actors, including ransomware through a solid managed detection and response capability and security application management. For funds in  the Grand Duchy, viewing data, cloud, and cybersecurity holistically will be key for success in 2022. This one tapestry, not three silos.