Cloud Tech Bulletin Newsletter #6: How the Cloud is Revolutionising the Financial Landscape

The financial industry is undergoing a profound digital transformation, with cloud computing emerging as a pivotal technology driving this change.?

As traditional banking systems evolve, financial institutions worldwide leverage cloud solutions to enhance agility, security, and innovation. This shift is not merely a technological upgrade; it's a strategic imperative in an increasingly competitive and digitally driven market.

In our 6th edition of the Cloud Blueprint we explore how global giants like BBVA and Old Mutual to innovative digital banks like Trust Bank, financial institutions harness the power of cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) , Google Cloud , and IBM Cloud to redefine their operations and customer experiences.

Transitioning to a cloud environment presents challenges for banks, despite the clear advantages. While 72% of international banks believe cloud adoption will help achieve business goals, only 13% have fully migrated their data. Concerns about regulatory compliance, integration with legacy systems, and unpredictable costs often slow down this process.

These case studies (scroll down for further details) illuminate how financial institutions address challenges and adopt the transformative potential of the cloud:

• Scalability and Performance: Trust Bank Singapore 's rapid growth, onboarding over 100,000 customers in just ten days, showcases the cloud's ability to support explosive growth while maintaining high performance.
• Operational Efficiency: Old Mutual Limited 's migration to AWS Fargate resulted in an 87% reduction in onboarding time for new engineers, highlighting the operational benefits of cloud-native technologies.
• Innovation and Agility: BBVA 's adoption of AWS for its Murex MX.3 platform demonstrates how cloud computing enables banks to adapt quickly to regulatory requirements and business needs.
• Enhanced Security: Saudi Bank Awwal 's implementation of Google Cloud and Anthos illustrates how cloud technologies can strengthen security postures while enabling innovation.
• AI and Machine Learning Integration: Federal Bank 's AI assistant "Feddy," powered by 谷歌 's Dialogflow, exemplifies how cloud-based AI can transform customer interactions and operational efficiency.

As we delve deeper into cloud computing in finance, we'll explore the key benefits, challenges, and technological considerations shaping the future of banking and financial services.?

From microservices and containerisation to AI-driven customer experiences, the cloud is not just changing how financial institutions operate—it's redefining what's possible in finance.

The Cloud Bulletin Technical Case Study Deep-Dive

BBVA: Scaling Regulatory Compliance with AWS

BBVA is a global financial services leader operating in over 25 countries. ?

BBVA 's migration of its Murex MX.3 platform to Amazon Web Services (AWS) showcases how cloud computing can address complex regulatory requirements like FRTB.

Technical Deep Dive:

• Infrastructure: Leveraged Amazon EC2 (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud) to create a scalable grid computing environment
• Performance Optimisation: Utilised EC2 instance types optimised for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads, likely 亚马逊 C5n or Z1d instances for their strong network performance and high clock speeds
• Scalability: Implemented auto-scaling groups to dynamically adjust compute resources based on the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) calculation demands
• Data Management: Likely integrated with Amazon S3 for storing large datasets required for risk calculations
• Networking: Utilised AWS Direct Connect for secure, low-latency connectivity between on-premises systems and AWS

Key Takeaway: AWS's high-performance computing capabilities enable banks to meet stringent regulatory requirements while maintaining operational flexibility.

Trust Bank: Cloud-Native Digital Banking at Scale

Trust Bank Singapore , a digitally native bank launched in Singapore in 2022, quickly became one of the world’s fastest-growing digital banks. Backed by 渣打银行 Bank and FairPrice Group , Trust Bank's rapid growth demonstrates the power of a fully cloud-native architecture in supporting explosive customer acquisition.

Technical Deep Dive:

• Containerisation: Deployed microservices across 9 Amazon EKS clusters, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance. An Amazon EKS cluster consists of a control plane and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) or Fargate compute that you run Pods on.
• Cluster Management: Implemented Karpenter for intelligent node provisioning, achieving 10x faster cluster scaling. Karpenter simplifies Kubernetes infrastructure with the right nodes at the right time
• Database Performance: Migrated from Amazon RDS to Aurora PostgreSQL, resulting in: 18% cost reduction despite 30% customer growth 10x increase in max I/O operations per second 67% drop in P99 latency for payment processing
• Cost Optimisation: Adopted AWS Graviton processors, yielding a 40% better price-performance ratio
• Data Lake: Implemented on Amazon S3, storing terabytes of data for analytics and ML workloads
• Machine Learning: Utilised Amazon SageMaker for building, training, and deploying ML models for personalised recommendations
• Big Data Processing: Employed Amazon EMR, a cloud big data platform for running large-scale distributed data processing jobs, interactive SQL queries, and machine learning applications.

Key Takeaway: A well-architected cloud-native stack can provide the agility and scalability needed for rapid growth in digital banking.

Old Mutual: Serverless Containerisation for Operational Efficiency

Established in 1845, Old Mutual Limited is a pan-African financial services company that serves customers across 14 countries in Africa and Asia.?Old Mutual's shift to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Fargate exemplifies how serverless container orchestration can dramatically reduce operational overhead.

Technical Deep Dive:

• Migration Path: Transitioned from self-managed Kubernetes to Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate
• Architecture: Implemented a distributed model across multiple Availability Zones for improved disaster recovery
• Serverless Benefits: Eliminated need for EC2 instance management, patching, and capacity planning
• CI/CD Integration: Likely implemented AWS CodePipeline and Codebuild for automated container deployment
• Monitoring: Utilised Amazon CloudWatch for container-level metrics and AWS X-Ray for distributed tracing
• Security: Implemented fine-grained IAM roles (entities you create and assign specific permissions to that allow trusted identities such as workforce identities and applications to perform actions in AWS) for tasks, enhancing the security posture of containerised applications

Key Takeaway: Serverless container orchestration can significantly reduce the operational burden on engineering teams, allowing focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management.

Saudi Awwal Bank: Secure Hybrid Cloud with Google Cloud and Anthos

SAB is one of Saudi Arabia's largest and most established financial institutions, offering a wide range of banking services to corporate and institutional clients.?

Regulated by the Saudi Central Bank – SAMA and in strategic partnership with the 汇丰 Group, SAB is committed to driving the Kingdom’s growth and embracing digital transformation. SAB's adoption of Google Cloud and Anthos demonstrates how banks can leverage hybrid cloud architectures to balance innovation with regulatory compliance.

Technical Deep Dives

• Hybrid Kubernetes: Utilised Anthos for consistent Kubernetes management across on-premises and cloud environments
• Microservices Architecture: Implemented containerised microservices for improved modularity and scalability
• Service Mesh: Deployed Istio-based service mesh (a modernized service networking layer that provides a transparent and language-independent way to flexibly and easily automate application network functions) for secure service-to-service communication and traffic management
• CI/CD: Likely implemented Cloud Build and Anthos Config Management for consistent deployment across environments
• Scalability: Leveraged Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for auto-scaling of containerised workloads
• Security: Implemented Binary Authorisation for deploying only verified container images

Key Takeaway: Hybrid cloud architectures with consistent management plans can help banks innovate while maintaining control over sensitive workloads.

AEON Bank: Rapid CRM Deployment for Digital-First Banking

AEON Bank (M) Berhad, a subsidiary of AEON FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED launched as Malaysia's first Islamic Digital Bank on January 8, 2024. AEON Bank's swift Salesforce CRM implementation showcases how cloud platforms can accelerate time-to-market for digital banks.

Technical Deep Dive:

• Platform: Salesforce Service Cloud, likely with Financial Services Cloud add-on
• Integration: Utilised Salesforce APIs and MuleSoft for seamless integration with core banking systems
• Customisation: Leveraged Salesforce Lightning components for rapid UI/UX development
• Data Model: Implemented a customer-centric data model optimised for Islamic banking products
• Analytics: Integrated Salesforce Einstein Analytics for AI-driven insights
• Compliance: Utilised Salesforce Shield for enhanced security and regulatory compliance

Key Takeaway: Cloud-based CRM platforms can provide a robust foundation for a rapid launch of digital banking services, with built-in compliance and customisation capabilities.

Federal Bank: AI-Driven Customer Service Evolution

Federal Bank Limited is a major digital-first Indian commercial bank with more than 1,250 branches and a customer base of more than 10 million across different states. Federal Bank's Feddy AI assistant demonstrates the power of cloud-based conversational AI in transforming customer interactions.

Technical Deep Dive:

• NLP Engine: 谷歌 's Dialogflow for intent recognition and entity extraction
• Integration: Likely used Dialogflow API to integrate with existing customer service platforms
• Scalability: Leveraged Google Cloud's serverless offerings (Cloud Functions, Cloud Run) for backend processing
• Machine Learning: Implemented custom ML models using TensorFlow on the Google Cloud AI Platform for domain-specific tasks
• Analytics: Utilised bigquery for large-scale analysis of conversation logs
• Continuous Improvement: Implemented a feedback loop using Dialogflow's built-in machine-learning capabilities

Key Takeaway: Cloud-based AI platforms enable banks to rapidly deploy and scale intelligent customer service solutions, dramatically improving efficiency and satisfaction.

Alinma Bank: API-Driven Super-App on IBM Cloud

Based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,? Alinma Bank is the region’s epicenter for dynamic, innovative, Shariah-compliant banking and financial services, delivered with the speed and convenience customers require in their busy modern lives Alinma Bank's super-app development showcases how cloud technologies can facilitate the creation of comprehensive digital ecosystems.

Technical Deep Dive:

• API Management: IBM Cloud Pak for Integration for managing internal and external APIs
• Application Server: IBM WebSphere Liberty for lightweight, cloud-native Java applications
• Container Orchestration: 红帽 OpenShift for consistent deployment across hybrid cloud environments
• Microservices: Likely implemented using Spring Boot With React JS or Quarkusio for Java-based microservices
• Event-Driven Architecture: Probable use of Apache Kafka for real-time event streaming between services
• DevOps: Implemented CI/CD pipelines (series of steps that must be performed in order to deliver a new version of software) using Jenkins on OpenShift for automated deployments
• Modernisation: Utilised IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor for assessing and modernising legacy applications

Key Takeaway: Cloud-native platforms and API-centric architectures enable banks to create versatile, scalable digital ecosystems that can rapidly adapt to changing market needs.

In conclusion:

These case studies provide a deeper technical insight into how leading financial institutions are leveraging cloud technologies to drive innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and deliver superior customer experiences.?

The diverse approaches highlight the flexibility of cloud platforms in addressing specific challenges within the banking and financial services sector.

If you are seeing this newsletter and are not signed up, sign up now for monthly news dedicated to the latest developments, trends, and insights in cloud adoption and technology across various industries.

Know an industry?professional?or?startup funder?interested in this newsletter? Feel free to forward it to them.

Newsletter curated by Benedict Xavier - For tips and to be featured kindly?send me a direct message?on LinkedIn.