Financial services customers expect to be able to carry out transactions at the touch of a smartphone. If help is needed, they expect omnichannel customer support through simultaneous channels. Increasingly, banks are meeting customer expectations by choosing cloud solutions to power the majority of their infrastructure and application portfolio with cloud computing. This move to the cloud allows them to modernize how they works in an increasingly digital world – including the ability to rapidly access and analyze data, expediting time to market while more quickly scaling innovative products to customers and partners, and empowering the increasingly agile workforce.

This week, U.S. Bank announced it has made a substantial investment in modernizing its technology foundation by choosing Microsoft (News - Alert) Azure as its primary cloud provider for its applications. U.S. Bank and Microsoft will work to develop new growth opportunities that will allow U.S. Bank to expand its partnerships and take advantage of an ever-evolving financial services marketplace.

Through this technology investment, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will transform applications and infrastructure to create compelling, personalized experiences. The transition to the cloud will also further improve the security of data, financial assets and customer privacy while adding resiliency for the bank and strengthening technology risk management, said the two companies. Customers will have access to more tools to help them manage their banking via any channel they prefer.

"It has been a dramatic time of change in the banking industry, where success is increasingly driven by technology capabilities," said Andy Cecere, Chairman, President and CEO of U.S. Bank, in a statement. "Our clients expect and require extreme flexibility and a bank that is simple to navigate and capable of quickly adjusting to their evolving needs. Building on our initial investments in cloud and with the success of our technology and digital modernization, we gained the competence and confidence to accelerate our efforts to better serve our customers. Our cloud-first approach with Microsoft Azure will help us accomplish just that."