In the last few years, trust and corporate services providers have made a significant transition to the cloud. Nowadays, some companies in the industry are fully cloud based and some are exclusively on-premise. However, the majority use a combination between on-premise and cloud infrastructure.

For those companies that have not made the transition to the cloud at all and for those that have made a partial transition, there is today a confluence of factors that makes this an ideal time to move towards more cloud solutions.

The difference between on-premise and cloud based software

On-premise and cloud are two ways of managing IT infrastructure. On-premise means the company has its IT infrastructure, software and data in its own physical locations. In contrast, in cloud based solutions, these resources are available in locations owned and managed by a third-party and the company can access them via the internet.

Ultimately, the main difference lies in responsibility and control. In the case of on-premise, the company is fully responsible and controls the infrastructure while much of that responsibility is shifted to the cloud provider in the case of the cloud.

Growing digitalization demands

Customers, vendors and employees expect to do more than ever without physical interaction. This is a trend that started decades ago but has accentuated in the last few years because of two main reasons: the pandemic and the generation change

The pandemic forced us to move almost all face-to-face interactions to the online world for a few months in 2020. Employees are now used to working remotely (at least some part of the time) and customers are a lot more comfortable with meetings through video calls than they were before. The trust and corporate services industry is very relationship-based and offline meetings are key to building these. However, the pandemic proved that we can use digital means for some of the tasks.

I still find it hard to believe but those now entering the workforce were not alive in the pre-internet era and those now in their thirties were young when the internet and mobile interfaces were developing. As technology-native people make up a larger fraction of the population and concentrate a larger proportion of the global wealth, trust and corporate services companies will see their employees, customers and vendors expecting more processes happening online.

Although there are great technology solutions available on-premise, the cloud enables new systems and changes to be adopted faster and lowers the cost of having software. Web portals for document or information submission, real-time updates on progress and instant on-demand access to information are all becoming standard. There are many solutions to these demands available on the cloud at a reasonable cost and they are continuously getting better. Therefore, companies that embrace the cloud will have a competitive advantage in the digital era.

The power of generative AI can be best unleashed in the cloud

Generative AI has shown real value in helping process text data and outputting semi-standardized documents. The trust and corporate services industry fits the use case very well as companies receive a large number of documents, such as passports and incorporation documents, and, from this information and other sources, they need to generate other documents, such as trust deeds and registries.

However, LLM models, which are the ones that power generative AI applications, are primarily available as cloud based solutions. Deploying on-premise LLM models, such as Meta’s open source Llama, requires expensive specialized infrastructure and deep expertise that might not be worth the investment. Embracing the cloud will allow trust and corporate services providers to get the most out of generative AI in the short term.

The cloud is secure

Data privacy is a particularly sensitive topic for trust and corporate services companies. This is understandable as they hold data that is very personal about high profile individuals.

I often get asked which is the more secure option: on-premise or cloud. The reality is that both solutions can be secure or vulnerable depending on how they are managed. Information security needs to be looked through the lens of a structured risk management process and considering a triad of factors: confidentiality (data is only accessed by those who should), integrity (data is correct) and availability (data is accessible when needed). The risks you face will depend on your specific business.

Cloud has some significant advantages though. Cloud providers invest heavily into information security ensuring they continuously assess, test and audit their systems, remediate any vulnerabilities immediately and maintain state-of-the-art practices in key cybersecurity aspects such as zero trust, encryption, training, SIEM, etc.. In addition, there is more choice available for security solutions when leveraging the cloud.

Conclusion

What makes the leaders in the industry what they are is their deep expertise in subjects such as wealth planning, corporate structuring and fund administration plus the relationships they have built. Technology is here to help provide better and more efficient services and the cloud plays a key role in providing trust and corporate services companies with access to the best software.