National Australia Bank is shifting its technology focus away from being just a builder of computer systems towards being an "orchestrator of services", which will see it embrace cloud computing where possible.Now a third of the way through its multi-billion dollar technology transformation, with the first customer accounts likely to be migrated to the NextGen banking platform later this year, the bank has also overhauled its internal structures. By moving to an IT services model - essentially, offering a catalogue of IT services which users can select from - the bank will be better placed to embrace cloud  computing, a utility-style computing model where companies can add or reduce computing capability to match market conditions. Speaking at the FST Media Technology and Innovation conference in Melbourne yesterday, NAB chief information officer Adam Bennett said that the IT services model coupled with the new streamlined technology platforms being rolled through the bank would allow NAB to "scale up and scale down depending on business and customer need."The bank has already signed a deal with IBM that will involve the computer company creating an internal private cloud for NAB.NAB is the only Australian member of the international steering committee of the Open Data Centre Alliance, a global organisation that is working on standards which will help companies select and negotiate cloud computing arrangements. NAB is currently trialling a security framework that might, ultimately, become part of ODCA's global suite of recommended cloud standards.Bennett said that the bank's focus was on priming itself to be able to "adapt with greater efficiency, moving in step with innovation instead of waiting for multi-layered connectivity issues to be ironed out."We will be able to respond and adapt to changing technologies such as cloud computing. As cloud techniques improve, and the challenges of standardisation, security and regulation are addressed, we will be ready to pursue cloud opportunities as appropriate to our environment."