IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and PaaS (platform as a service) are new to the financial services vocabulary. They stand to dominate the discussions around the digital evolution.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A or BBVA has been the focus of global industry attention as they develop a modern digital platform to become a more flexible and scalable bank-a digital bank. As Carlos Torres Villa, CEO of BBVA has said, 'I want to create an ecosystem capable of supporting our transformation process.'

BBVA aims to improve its technological capabilities, particularly in managing the recent growth of financial transactions on digital devices, while also delivering digital banking services globally.

The goal is dynamic scalability. With IaaS, the bank can call for more infrastructure if and when clients demand. It's a simple idea with important strategic planning ramifications. BBVA is opting for a multi-cloud-based operating environment. It aims to focus on developing applications that can support the heavy demands of global digital bank services to provide customers with the service and information they want and when they need it.

Flexibility is at the heart of the move. The heavy and evolving demands of a customer's digital relationship puts intense pressure on legacy infrastructures. Data models are moving banks to real time decision tools. The digital ecosystem continues to present new opportunities that clients are experiencing in other industries and therefore need to be considered.

Cisco is supporting BBVA's migration to a multi cloud environment while delivering a unified collaboration solution and universal connectivity ("internet of everything") in the most secure method available. The robust infrastructure allows BBVA to introduce the benefits of a multi cloud solution in a trusted environment while providing its customers the best in breed solutions.

With a modern and flexible cloud-based platform, BBVA will be well-poised to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the fast-evolving digital economy to help meet growing customer expectations. Where does IaaS fit into your plans? What new models are you adopting at the infrastructure layer to support your business over the next decade?   And are you addressing security as an integral part of your innovation efforts?