It allows companies to save costs and resources, use synergies, optimise processes and gain access to specialist knowledge. And central banks may benefit from this, too. The Bundesbank, for instance, already applies cloud services in several areas. In particular, we are examining how cloud services may help to improve agility, data analysis and research methodologies.
In economic research, for instance, demands for scalability have become apparent that can hardly be met by using exclusively internal IT resources. This is due, amongst other things, to the increasing focus on microdata, which requires the processing of considerably larger volumes of data. That said, central banks, in particular, must be aware that relying on cloud services brings about new challenges.