SINGAPORE - DBS Bank is partnering data centre provider Equinix to plug one of its data centres in Singapore into the cloud.

The move will enable the bank to move its main data centre to an area a quarter of the size, which will make the centre 75 per cent cheaper to run.

Cloud computing generally refers to hosting services and applications over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis.

With cloud technologies, DBS can deliver products to customers at a faster rate, said Mr David Gledhill, DBS group chief information officer and head of technology and operations.

"With the new cloud data centre, we are able to significantly increase our energy efficiency as well as drastically reduce our carbon footprint."

DBS has been migrating to cloud technology in recent years to save costs.

Its digibank online mobile banking system in India and Indonesia is on the cloud, as well as its DBS iWealth portfolio management and trading app for high-net-worth clients. The DBS car marketplace is also hosted on the cloud.

By next year, half of its computing workload will be shifted to the public cloud.

All 23,000 employees are also using Microsoft's cloud-based productivity tools, the bank said.