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Building the foundation for a bank of the future
IT infrastructure modernization by Deloitte and AWS
Is your information technology (IT) infrastructure getting in the way of becoming a modern bank of the future? Learn how Converge™ by Deloitte BankingSuite and AWS are helping organizations keep up with customer demands with a digital banking platform that forms the foundation for you to build on.
Addressing industry challenges with IT infrastructure modernization
Consumers aren’t the only ones who expect more from banks—so do the banks themselves. They want to offer the agile, open banking environment that attracts business. They want to strengthen regulatory performance, bolster security, streamline development of new offerings, and keep costs under control. They want to operate as banks of the future.
Central to all these ambitions is the IT infrastructure a bank relies on. Siloed, batch-based, monolithic architectures have left many institutions limited in their ability to adapt while navigating compliance and security concerns. Meanwhile new market challengers are often cloud-native, which gives them the high degrees of scalability and flexibility they seek but lack.
Modernizing a bank’s IT infrastructure by moving to the cloud can open the door to capitalizing on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions and meeting customers at their point of need, restoring balance to the playing field. Banks that have taken this journey have seen cost reductions of as much as 60% compared to their legacy systems, freeing resources they can devote to customer acquisition and digital competitiveness. Banks that have not made this leap may risk being left behind, and customers may perceive them as slow, lacking in innovation, or unresponsive to their fast-changing needs.
What’s stopping every bank from taking on this transformation? In some cases, the will is there, but it’s difficult to know where to begin. There are many active proofs of concept, but less certainty about which investments add value to the business, or how to align them into a coherent whole.
Building the foundation of a future-focused bank
Core architecture principles for modern banking systems
While every bank will have unique needs to address in its IT infrastructure modernization, there are common approaches that AWS and Deloitte have found can help in forming the foundations most institutions will build on. These include:
Defense in depth
Microservices and event-driven architecture
High availability and resiliency
Automated infrastructure and delivery
Security and compliance
Traditional architectures use security only at entry points, allowing users to navigate within the system after an initial credential check. This isn’t strict enough to safeguard complex systems and data. The new approach imposes defense in depth through “zero trust”—even when someone is “in”, the user must secure authentication at each step. A digital banking platform fortified this way has a smaller “attack surface,” enhanced compliance, and less fraud vulnerability.
Traditional architectures are monolithic with tightly coupled applications—convenient when in use, but it can make updates and resilience difficult. Microservice architecture “decomposes” an application into constituent parts: small, loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Breaking down an application can make resource allocation more efficient, improving performance. Decoupled microservices promote resilience as well, since one service failure doesn’t impact the entire application.
Availability depends on resiliency and redundancy. A few ways to accomplish this are redundant infrastructure, load balancers, capacity, and data. Redundant infrastructure helps mitigate the downtime due to network issues or natural disasters. Load balancers distribute traffic evenly across back-end servers while monitoring server health. Capacity allows organizations to adjust to changes in demand. Data replication strategies can permit rapid recovery in case of disasters.
Automation works when it’s comprehensive, from the lowest level up. From infrastructure to configurations to all microservices, everything is treated as code—code that goes through rigorous reviews, testing, and security. Automating the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process can streamline and improve the software development processes by reducing manual errors, accelerating time to market, and enhancing overall productivity.
Security, compliance, and risk management call for a comprehensive approach when building a digital banking platform. Tools such as the AWS Well-Architected Framework can provide a consistent approach to help make infrastructures secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient on the cloud. Strict contractual requirements and regular audits or assessments can help make sure the platform adheres to applicable regulations and industry standards.
Putting the principles into practice with BankingSuite
Recognizing the need for banks to modernize rapidly, without compromising on security, Converge™ by Deloitte BankingSuite provides banks with a secure, stable digital platform to lay the foundations for future growth and new capabilities.
The combination of BankingSuite and AWS services with the cloud and cyber strengths of ConvergeSECURITY addresses the five principles outlined above by design. Details of this combined operation include:
Building the foundation of a future-focused bank
Are you struggling with where to start your IT infrastructure modernization? Read our full report for details on how Converge by Deloitte BankingSuite and AWS can provide configurable digital platforms that deliver the banking solutions your organization needs.
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