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A secure cloud landing zone to accelerate bank transformation

A secure cloud landing zone to accelerate bank transformation

A leading automotive manufacturer’s financial arm plans for future success with a modern banking infrastructure

The automotive financial services division is committed to a growth-through-innovation strategy. As part of its technology renewal it is implementing a modern core platform on a subscription-based service (SaaS). To minimize the need to build and manage on-premise back-up systems, the bank has chosen to run its new core on AWS cloud. With a secure cloud-based infrastructure the financial services division will have the freedom to innovate and the benefits of better security, flexibility and scalability.

Optimized costs

With a modern solution on the cloud, costs are 70% lower and aligned with business success.

Reduced capital outlay

By choosing a SaaS model the bank is spared of the need for periodic investment in hardware or software.

Innovation without limits

By embracing modern methods and technologies, the bank can put innovation at the heart of all that it does.

Partner

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform.

Challenge

A secure cloud landing zone

The automotive financial services division sought an experienced technical partner to help accelerate its business transformation. A secure landing zone is prerequisite for any successful cloud migration. This provides a baseline to deploy workloads, applications and data smoothly and securely. As an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner, GFT agreed to help the institute meet an ambitious deadline and committed to work as an extension of the bank’s in-house IT department.

Engagement

The power of teamwork

With GFT as its technical partner, the automotive financial services division established a project to migrate to a cloud-based infrastructure.

Although cloud is not a prerequisite to a SaaS core banking deployment, the financial services division seized the opportunity to migrate its infrastructure to AWS cloud. While this was a significant undertaking, it was easier, cheaper and faster than any alternative. A cloud deployment reduces the need to install new on-premise infrastructure for back-ups, contingency planning and to meet regulatory compliance obligations.

Cloud was a strategic consideration with forecast savings of up to 70% on total processing costs. The partners chose Amazon tooling for the entire project to deliver strategic value and ensure the technology remains "future-proof".

In parallel with cloud migration, the partners have initiated a project to customize the new core banking platform to meet the financial services division’s exact business needs. A complementary ongoing task is to ensure that all data on the legacy platform is correctly formatted to ensure a smooth migration with no interruption to business as usual.

The Bank faced a fixed deadline as its legacy platform license was due to expire in a few months and could not be extended without major expenditure. A GFT cloud architecture and security team assessed the approach and strategy, and a dedicated GFT cloud team was assigned. The project was detailed in a comprehensive business strategy and implementation plan.

Flexibility is fundamental to any project’s success. When necessary, GFT drew on its pool of experts across a range of disciplines. As the migration strategy evolved, the GFT team was flexible enough to meet evolving business requirements and priorities while maintaining project momentum.

To maintain project quality, GFT has followed AWS Cloud Foundations which offers the bank a foundational set of capabilities required to deploy, operate and govern workloads. As well as GFT offering a migration roadmap, using Cloud Foundations makes sure that all the automotive financial services division’s workloads will support ongoing operations in the cloud.

GFT quickly built a secure cloud landing zone from scratch using AWS Control Tower. This accelerated progress and maximized flexibility without compromising security. AWS Control Tower was chosen to meet the Bank’s immediate needs and to accommodate future change and expansion. Additional AWS accounts can be created within guardrails and all accounts are monitored through a single dashboard. In practice a landing zone evolves so flexibility is crucial to drive improvement.

"Changing a mission-critical core is a major challenge for any bank. Faced with a fixed deadline we needed a strong foundation to build on. We from GFT built a secure landing zone to rigorous AWS standards. Now workstreams can be moved to the cloud securely and at pace."

Anabel Vázquez Bernárdez

Program Manager

GFT

Benefit

A model cloud landing zone

With a secure cloud landing zone, the automotive financial services division can migrate its core banking business to the cloud at its own pace. The AWS landing zone offers ready access to a secure, multi-account environment that includes state-of-the-art processing, automation and access.

The partners are progressing the migration with GFT offering suggestions for process and software improvement. GFT specialists work as an extension of the Bank’s team, with some members working on site as required.