Central banks have been understandably cautious about embracing cloud computing, fearing data breaches and other cyber risks. So one might not necessarily expect the financial markets group – critical as it is to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s operations – to be the first to move to the cloud.

But the RBNZ wanted to demonstrate what was possible. The New Zealand government was already pursuing a ‘cloud-first’ strategy, and senior managers at the central bank had a strong risk management