Having returned from the BSA Conference 2025, it was clear that building societies are navigating a critical juncture - balancing their relationship-led service models while addressing the urgent need to modernise outdated systems and improve operational efficiency. Given the current geopolitical climate, and the increasing pace of innovation, developing a strategy that not only solves immediate challenges, but offers sufficient scope to tackle future issues, can often seem like a moving target.

Organisations' demands of their IT infrastructure continue to evolve at an unprecedented rate, with the drive for growth and innovation needing to be balanced against the need to maintain cost control, visibility, and - crucially, cyber security. Numerous solutions have emerged in response to these challenges, but one of the most pivotal questions organisations must answer is whether to host their critical data and applications on-site, or in the Cloud.

Let's explore the respective advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, and then consider whether the increasing sophistication of modern workloads demand a new approach...