The FCA defines an Important Business Service (IBS) as a critical service that if affected could impact clients or the market. FCA regulated organisations will typically take this definition and create their own process to consistently identify their own relevant services, and maintain their own Important Business Service list. means a service provided by a firm, or by another person on behalf of the firm, to one or more clients of the firm which, if disrupted, could: ...

Board governance is the system by which a board of directors controls an organisation, defining how it operates, makes decisions, and oversees key business outcomes such as strategy, risk, and performance. Effective boards ensure accountability through transparent reporting and ethical conduct, setting the tone at the top and fostering a culture of responsible leadership. Responsibilities of a Board Member Board members play a critical role in: Decision-Making: Setting strategic direction, approving major initiatives, and balancing short-term needs with long-term sustainability while considering stakeholder interests. ...

Containers are portable, self-contained software packages that include an application and all its dependencies, such as libraries and configuration files, allowing consistent execution across different environments; containers are effectively code that defines the environment in which the application runs. Portable: Containers bundle everything an application needs to run, allowing them to be moved between environments — such as laptops, servers, or the cloud. – Self-contained: Each container includes its own file system, processes, and network interfaces, isolating it from the host system and other containers. Consistent execution: By including all dependencies within the container, applications run reliably and consistently, regardless of the underlying infrastructure. Effectively code that defines the environment: A container image serves as a blueprint, specifying the operating system libraries, environment variables and settings, effectively acting as “code” that defines the runtime environment. Further reading The History of Containers (Red Hat Blog) Securing Containers: Keeping pace with change (ISF) Related Kubernetes

Data Governance is a framework of policies, procedures, and roles designed to ensure that an organisation’s data is accurate, secure, trustworthy, as well as being in compliance with ethical, regulatory, and business requirements. Strong Data Governance allows organisations to derive value from their data while mitigating risks.

DevOps combines development and operations practices to streamline software delivery through collaboration, automation, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines DevOps enables faster and more reliable deployments, bringing benefits such as improved efficiency, scalability and accelerated time-to-market. With the right design, automated control procedures can mitigate specific risks in development, such as coding errors and security vulnerabilities. Related DevSecOps