AWS Summit ASEAN 2022 - Core banking migration to AWS - Standard Chartered (FSI201)
AWS Summit ASEAN 2022 - Core banking migration to AWS - Standard Chartered (FSI201)
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), a global bank serving customers in 60 markets, is aiming to migrate 75% of its workloads to the Cloud by 2025. The migration of Atlas core banking system, a tier 1 highly regulated workload, to AWS, is SCB’s Lighthouse project on this Cloud journey. Atlas requires exceptional levels of security, availability, and auditability. In this fireside chat, hear from Anshu Sharma, CIO of SCB CPBB, on the strategy, successes, challenges and lessons learned from their migration to AWS.
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Content
0.08 -> [music playing]
8.68 -> Hi, everyone.
10.04 -> Welcome to this fireside chat
12.32 -> on the migration of SCB's core
banking system to AWS.
16.52 -> I'm Xavier Loup, Principal
Solutions Architect at AWS.
20.56 -> I've already four years
of experience with AWS,
23.8 -> and during the last two years
I worked directly with SCB teams
28.68 -> to support the bank's
journey to the cloud.
31.84 -> Today, I welcome Anshu Sharma.
34.84 -> Anshu, thanks for accepting
to join me.
38.24 -> For the audience, can you
please introduce yourself
41.2 -> and describe your role.
43.08 -> Thank you, Xavier,
and thank you, everyone.
45.4 -> Absolutely delighted to be here.
47 -> I'm Anshu Sharma Raja.
48.36 -> I'm the CIO for Consumer Private
and Business Banking
50.92 -> at Standard Chartered Bank.
52.76 -> Standard
Chartered as you know is a bank
55 -> with 160 years
in the business.
57.16 -> We operate in 59
different countries,
59.04 -> and we have about
85,000 employees worldwide.
62.64 -> Needless to say, there is a
huge amount of application footprint
66.48 -> we have all in the last few years
and what you see now.
70.88 -> And very, very delighted
to be working
72.6 -> with Amazon Web Services
on our journey to cloud.
75.92 -> SCB has been running workloads
on AWS since 2015.
82.2 -> Can you give us more insight
about the current
84.44 -> cloud strategy
of the bank?
87.24 -> Sure.
88.64 -> Since 2015, the cloud strategy
has been evolving
92.24 -> and essentially the strategy
has evolved based on value
96.28 -> that we get out of cloud, right.
97.64 -> It's not about just putting every
single workload onto cloud,
101.36 -> but we are very careful
102.52 -> and deliberate about
the value-based migration.
106.16 -> Essentially
saying that by 2025, ideally,
109.08 -> we would like 75% of our workloads
to be operating in cloud.
112.68 -> So today I'm excited to speak
with you
115.92 -> about the migration of Atlas,
your core banking system.
119.8 -> So many AWS customers start on
the cloud with low-risk migrations.
125.16 -> However, SCB decided in 2019
128.84 -> to migrate the core banking system
as one of the first workloads.
133 -> So why did you decide to move
the most critical application first?
137.6 -> Sure.
138.68 -> Can I say that we picked
out and it was Atlas?
141.24 -> No.
No.
142.36 -> No.
143.52 -> It was clearly not that, right?
146.4 -> You know, our strategy was…
148.2 -> And Atlas as you know
is our core banking system,
150.52 -> which is the really the heart
of any banking, you know,
155.24 -> any bank for that matter, right?
156.88 -> It is the core banking system.
158.48 -> And our philosophy was that
if you can migrate the core banking
161.44 -> with 250 different upstream
and downstream
164.08 -> interfaces into the cloud,
then you can do everything.
167.04 -> So this was very well thought out as
a showcase for the cloud migration.
172.36 -> And essentially if you move
this application,
175.64 -> it actually sends out a message
both internally and also externally.
179.8 -> We actually would be able to then
really overcome the challenges
183.64 -> that any cloud migration would take.
185.8 -> And if we solve for the biggest
problems in this migration,
188.28 -> then we have really paved the way.
189.72 -> That was our philosophy.
191.2 -> And lastly, it was important for any
successful programme of this size
196.2 -> and scale to have high visibility.
198.56 -> And if we picked the core banking,
200.48 -> that was a little bit
of a smart move.
202.24 -> If we picked core banking,
203.92 -> everybody who really mattered
was invested in it
208.28 -> and there was clear sponsorship
behind this as well.
211.72 -> Clear executive support.
212.92 -> Absolutely.
214 -> Absolutely.
215.12 -> So I know that performance
improvement
217.8 -> was one of the key drivers
for the move to the cloud.
221.44 -> So there was a target of reaching
4,000 transactions per second,
226.16 -> which was 10 times more
than the on-premise system.
230.6 -> What were the other key drivers
for the move to the cloud of Atlas?
234.56 -> Sure.
235.76 -> Performance clearly, yes,
like you indicated,
238.04 -> but you know, so Atlas again
is our core banking system,
242.36 -> which we operate
in 42 different markets.
245.28 -> There were many, many different
flavours of Atlas,
247.68 -> you know, depending on…
248.92 -> You know, there was
a lot of legacy and history.
251.2 -> So clearly harmonisation,
consolidation of technology
254.48 -> and really moving to a modern stack
was another big driver.
257.04 -> As you would imagine,
you know,
258.48 -> this infrastructure was getting
obsolete, it needed a refresh.
261.72 -> There was also
the cyber posture,
263.4 -> the resiliency posture
on top of it.
265.6 -> So there was just so many
different drivers
267.28 -> and also our ability
to deploy changes.
270.04 -> The speed to market
was another big driver.
272.72 -> Should we have done this on-prem?
274.28 -> Yes, absolutely, but you know,
275.76 -> if the move to cloud really kind of
gave us many full benefits
279.36 -> and, you know, that those were
some of the big drivers
283.04 -> for us to move to cloud.
284.8 -> When you speak about speed to market,
288.28 -> so what were the key elements
that you were looking for?
292.28 -> Our ability to deploy changes
293.68 -> and not really having to wait
for the weekend.
295.4 -> That was a big one.
296.52 -> Use DevOps, really integrate that.
298.76 -> Yes, you can argue that, you know,
even on-prem environment,
302.04 -> you can integrate DevOps,
303.52 -> but our ability to really exploit
the different availability zones
309.24 -> that Amazon Web Services
would provide,
311.68 -> or AWS provides was, you know,
313.84 -> one of the things
that we were going after
315.36 -> and, it really paid off.
317.32 -> Let's take some time
with the audience
319.32 -> to do some cloud myth busting.
321.92 -> That's going to be a fun one.
323.08 -> Yeah.
324.2 -> Some people say that hosting PII data
and core banking in the cloud
329.24 -> is not permitted by regulators.
331.64 -> So what is your experience at SCB?
335.12 -> If you say it's not easy,
I would agree with you.
338.48 -> But if you say it's not permitted,
it's clearly a myth.
341.28 -> Yes, it's not been easy.
342.56 -> We are a heavily
regulated organisation.
344.84 -> Our industry is heavily regulated.
346.68 -> And like I said, there are many,
many regulators that we deal with
350.48 -> because we are dealing with
every single country regulator,
352.84 -> and then also our global regulators.
354.76 -> So it was not easy.
356 -> But there was a lot of work
that was required to get approvals
360.8 -> and really kind of demonstrate
that this is possible.
363.64 -> And that was another big payoff
that we had as part
368.4 -> of this initiative of doing Atlas
as the first workload there as well,
374.16 -> but there were advantages
that AWS provided.
376.64 -> For example, the multi-region
deployment made it easier
379.96 -> to be compliant with
country-specific data regulations,
382.2 -> especially in markets
383.44 -> which required localisation
like India and Indonesia.
387.68 -> Atlas today is deployed
in 6 different AWS regions
390.96 -> so that we comply
with local regulations.
394.28 -> All of this really kind of eased out
which with our regulators.
399.08 -> Some of this, we would not been able
to do it ourselves, right?
401.88 -> Because otherwise we'll
have to spin up data centres
404.76 -> in all of these
different regions and locations.
407.56 -> It becomes a very,
very costly affair.
409.76 -> Then the other thing was
standardising some of these services,
412.88 -> really making them compliant,
414.12 -> and actually, you know,
using them for…
416.6 -> So you fix them once,
418.24 -> and then you are able to reuse them
for different countries.
421.96 -> That really helped.
423.08 -> So in that sense, it's not that
it's not permitted, it is tough,
427.48 -> but once you cross the first,
or two steps,
430.32 -> then it becomes a very smooth ride.
431.68 -> That's great.
432.76 -> Yeah.
433.84 -> Another myth-busting question.
435.16 -> Okay.
436.24 -> Bring it on.
437.4 -> Some people say that security
is superior on-premises.
441.4 -> We know security is a top priority
for a workload
444.72 -> like a core banking system.
446.56 -> So do you consider it is harder
to be secure in the cloud?
449.84 -> I don't think so.
451.08 -> It's equally hard to secure
and continuously
452.96 -> keep securing software on-prem.
454.96 -> We know it's not a one-time job,
likewise, in the cloud as well.
458.32 -> But the advantage that cloud,
brings forward
461.36 -> is all
the advanced security capabilities
463.48 -> and the amount of automation
that are available today with AWS.
467.76 -> Absolutely, we use that
and we leverage that to the hills.
470.72 -> The other thing is that we need
to invest in a secure landing zone
473.68 -> and to also skill our resources,
to design security and to develop,
479.08 -> to design code which is secure
from the very beginning
481.56 -> and you're not kind of
really patching it at the end.
483.88 -> So essentially, secure by design
is a fundamental that we applied.
488.04 -> The last bit is that we used,
489.64 -> I think 18+ different
security services
492.08 -> that AWS provides and some
third-party security solutions.
495.48 -> Got them validated,
got them certified
497.56 -> and, you know,
we are using them.
498.68 -> So it's as much difficult
on either spot,
503.28 -> whether it's on-prem or AWS,
505.08 -> but in AWS, you kind of standardise
a lot more than,
508.88 -> you know, having to do
with bespoke on-prem.
511.36 -> Very true.
512.76 -> So, last myth-busting question.
515.64 -> Some people think that the main value
of cloud business cases
519.84 -> is IT cost reduction.
522.2 -> So what is your experience?
523.8 -> Yeah.
524.92 -> My view is that definitely there
are cost reductions and that cannot,
528.68 -> and that should not be
your going in premise.
530.92 -> There are so many other value
adds that moving to cloud brings.
534.88 -> For example, scalability.
536.52 -> For example, faster time
to market,
539.16 -> much stronger innovation,
global deployments.
542.12 -> You know, really using all these
reliability zones that are provided.
547.28 -> The blue, green deployment strategy.
548.84 -> You know, for example for us,
550.8 -> we were typically deploying
on weekends,
553.24 -> but now we are able to really kind of
deploy in business hours, et cetera.
557.56 -> Our security and resiliency posture,
559.76 -> the amount of costs
that was being incurred
562.68 -> in really kind of keeping
that hygiene level
564.56 -> top-notch was significant.
566.48 -> Now if you do all of these
and all the benefits,
568.56 -> it actually does result
in a significant cost reduction.
572.12 -> So going in position, if you look at
I only want to have a cost reduction,
576.48 -> you know, to me,
it is a by-product of what you do.
580.28 -> The cost reduction automatically
becomes a by-product.
582.84 -> Last not the least,
the elastic capacity, right?
586.32 -> You're able to kind of turn on
and off your workloads on-demand
590 -> and really turn them off
over the weekends
592 -> or on low utilisation days,
et cetera.
595.92 -> So that flexibility comes as well
598.04 -> and all of that results
in cost reduction.
600.04 -> So my view is that cost reduction
happens as a by-product
603.6 -> and not necessarily the first driver.
605.6 -> Yeah, very interesting.
607.76 -> So SCB core banking application
is now running on AWS
612 -> for more than 1 year in some markets
614.24 -> and you have already
migrated to 10 countries.
617.12 -> So where is the Atlas program
going from here?
620.72 -> Yeah, it's making a lot of strides.
623.08 -> Yes, we've migrated to 10 countries.
624.44 -> In fact, this year alone and we are
in March,
626.92 -> we've already done 2 markets
already this year.
629.84 -> By end of 2023, we aim to do all 42
and be done with this program
634.4 -> and then perhaps
start teaching others.
637.08 -> What about mainframe migration?
638.68 -> I heard that some core banking systems
are still running on mainframe.
642.2 -> Are you also planning to migrate them
to Atlas on the cloud?
646.44 -> Yes, indeed.
647.64 -> So that's our next step.
648.76 -> You know, that's where we have
already started some work
651.12 -> and eventually we would want
to migrate our mainframe
653.6 -> workloads onto AWS as well.
655.56 -> So we know that migrating such
a critical workload
659.04 -> is an ambitious goal.
660.6 -> What have been the most interesting,
the most important challenges,
665.28 -> and the lessons learned
from the project?
668.28 -> Interesting question.
669.44 -> You know, when you look back 2,
3 years,
672.6 -> first of all, the art of possible.
674.32 -> Was it even possible?
675.64 -> Everybody had doubts.
677.24 -> A few had lesser doubts
than the others,
680.04 -> but we all kind of,
you know, went ahead with that.
682.88 -> It took a lot of training
and really skill development,
686.88 -> that was the first thing,
to really get our team
689.88 -> move from a mindset of, you know,
on-prem to moving onto cloud.
694.88 -> So I think investment in training
697.48 -> and our skills development
has been tremendous.
699.92 -> And then, of course, you know,
701.2 -> just the mindset of we try
and standardise as much as possible
705.36 -> so that you're not kind of
reinventing the wheel
707.08 -> every single time
that you come in to attack,
710.12 -> and constantly looking at benefits
in terms of cost optimisation,
714.36 -> in terms of are we doing it
the right way, etc.
716.92 -> So keeping a check.
718.16 -> Some of those things have been
tremendous learning.
720.56 -> What it has done is it has really
paved the way for other applications.
723.56 -> So other applications have really
leveraged what Atlas has paved out
728.28 -> in terms of making standard
services available and ready to use.
731.72 -> AWS definitely provides a suite,
733.64 -> but you know how the bank's
procedures are,
735.6 -> and we have to kind of
really make it a double, triple
738.92 -> and checked from our
compliance standards as well.
741.32 -> So now that the suite is ready
to be used by others as well.
745.8 -> So those investing in some of
these upfront
749.2 -> has been a tremendous
learning as well.
751.32 -> Interesting.
752.64 -> So what advice would you give
to your peers on banking
756.92 -> in a similar strategic migration?
759.64 -> Good question.
761.52 -> I think the first thing
I would say is,
763 -> and especially
when I'm talking about,
764.48 -> these really large,
really core workloads.
769.2 -> Not so much about the smaller
applications which I think are…
772.96 -> most of the time, you know,
turn out to be a lift and shift.
775.84 -> You're not really rearchitecting that,
but here you had to refactor,
779 -> you had to rearchitect,
you had to make it cloud-ready.
781.96 -> I think the first thing I would say
is that be very clear
785.16 -> about why do you want to do this?
787.04 -> What is the purpose
of moving onto cloud?
789.08 -> So, you know, think and be clear
in your mind around that.
792.08 -> You know, of course,
we will start small like we did.
794.64 -> You know, there is no big bank here,
797.68 -> but have the blueprint to scale
ready with yourselves, right?
801.16 -> I think that is important.
802.6 -> The third thing we would say is that
we sometimes fall into this trap of,
806.16 -> you know, I already have
these services available
809.08 -> or I can build it internally,
why don't I go down that path?
812.6 -> We have a large army of software
engineers,
814.72 -> etc, etc,
so why don't we build that?
817.32 -> But I think it's important to use
what is readily available.
821.6 -> Certify that, make it fit for purpose
and standardise as much as possible
826.28 -> because that's what gives you
the economies of scale.
829.28 -> So really leverage
the cloud-native services
831.6 -> and investing in certifying
833.16 -> those rather than building bespoke
would be my advice.
837.96 -> That's great.
839.2 -> So now the last question.
841.84 -> So the core mission of SCB
is here for good.
845.68 -> So I went to the SCB portal website,
850.12 -> and I noticed one of the main targets
of the bank
854.92 -> is to improve sustainability
and reduce carbon footprint.
859.32 -> How can AWS cloud help SCB
achieve its sustainability goals?
865.64 -> Yeah.
866.76 -> So we are absolutely a very
passionate organisation
869.16 -> about here for good.
870.44 -> And if you've seen some of
our new advertisements are,
877.04 -> you know, specifically
talking about some of the things.
878.92 -> So it's really important.
880.08 -> It's very core to what we do in terms
of, you know, the carbon footprint.
885.96 -> So a couple of things.
887.24 -> I think, you know,
the fantastic thing is that
889.24 -> AWS also believes
in the same strategy.
891.32 -> Your data centers are green.
893.08 -> But more importantly, what we've seen
recently is access to the AWS
898 -> carbon footprint report, ,
899.2 -> which actually gives you
where you are, right.
902.48 -> It gives you a sense of what is
your carbon footprint like.
905.72 -> And I personally believe that unless
you are able to measure something,
910.88 -> there's no way you can track it.
912.24 -> So that is important and it helps us
optimise our resource consumption.
916.96 -> The other thing is that AWS is also
constantly working with us
922.08 -> in optimising and further, you know,
using engineering to optimise
928.12 -> what our green footprint is.
930.84 -> The good example right now,
as you know,
932.8 -> that we are testing out
the migration to the ARM processes.
936.88 -> The newer line of it which gives us
939.4 -> 40% more efficiency
on the database side.
942.04 -> So I think those measures, the fact
that it's also a constant thing
948.24 -> to think on AWS side
950 -> as well as it is for us,
really makes it worthwhile.
953.08 -> Thanks a lot, Anshu, for taking
the time to answer my questions.
957.44 -> For the audience, I would like
to mention that you can get more
960.76 -> technical details
about the Atlas migration to AWS
964.56 -> by watching the Atlas testimonial
from the re:Invent 2021 conference.
970.12 -> Thanks a lot for attending
this session.
972.24 -> We hope you found it valuable.
974.6 -> Thank you, Xavier.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT0ZaWKR1ew