STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PROCUREMENT AND OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE: A MULTIPLE-CASE STUDY OF CLOUD CONCENTRATION AND EXIT READINESS IN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Financial institutions are increasingly relying on cloud service providers (CSPs) to support critical technology, processing capabilities and customer-facing services. While embracing cloud can benefit scalability, access to additional security features, and improved operating efficiency, it can also present dependencies that are hard to find, manage, and unwind. The challenges are especially great if there are a number of providers in the shared space or if, for example, they use the same technology, software, and subcontractors. This paper explores the synergy of technology procurement strategy, together with provider selection, concentration risk assessment, contractual governance, dependency mapping and exit readiness, and how they can help achieve operational resilience. It uses a qualitative documentary multiple case study approach with analysis of regulatory and policy documents, a professional banking case study and peer-reviewed research. Some of the sources in the evidence corpus are from the Financial Stability Board, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, the European Banking Authority, Grant Thornton and Parchimowicz. The five interconnected governance issues identified by the thematic analysis are concentration risk extends beyond the number of contracted providers, procurement decisions impact on resilience throughout the technology lifecycle, contractual exit provisions does not automatically mean that practical portability is achieved, dependency visibility is key to continuity planning and exit readiness is all about regular testing and accountable ownership. The paper introduces an integrated governance model for procuring critical services from the perspective of the provider, contractual safeguards, architectural and dependency management, resilience testing and controlled exit execution. The study focuses on providing a governance-based synthesis for financial institutions to help them achieve a balance between cloud-based innovation and service continuity and regulatory responsibility.