Many aspects of modern banking are undergoing a technological revolution, but in the ATM segment, a debate is raging over whether new is actually better.
The controversy centers around whether it’s time to move ATM operating systems to the cloud, and like the rest of the $335 billion enterprise software market, competition between cloud and on-premises software providers that make the country’s 425,000 ATMs work is heating up.
One of the latest irons in the fire is NCR’s Kalpana enterprise software platform. Launched on April 15, the thin-client technology allows users to service ATMs remotely and could reduce the cost of ownership by up to 40%, according to the company.
“We believe that there was really a need for a makeover of the entire ATM architecture to allow, number one, quicker introduction of new services in a way that didn’t require us to visit physical ATMs to load new software,” Brian Bailey, vice president of software and branch transformation at NCR, said. “And then the other thing was, we wanted to make sure we were increasing security. This really allows us to do that in a much more protected way, by moving the application logic from the physical device, and the PC core within that device, to the cloud and to the enterprise.”
Today’s financial institutions and independent ATM deployers continue to seek out less costly and more efficient ways to operate their ATM fleets. Many are interested in learning more about the use of thin client and cloud technologies in the future, and ways to move beyond the traditional ATM technology model that is based on that of PCs, with operating system and other code residing on individual ATM hard drives. Many of these ATM deployers will be intently watching the progress of the rollouts of these new ATMs, and assess the appropriateness for their operations.
Overview by Ed O’Brien, Director, Banking Channels Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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