How One Cloud-Native Business Bank Overcame Its Cloud-Migration Roadblocks

Businesses and consumers alike are increasingly tapping new digital offerings for their financial needs as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic shifts banking practices. Financial institutions (FIs) worldwide are searching for solutions that can help them swiftly support customers, but this means many are becoming more aware of their legacy systems’ inadequacies.

Moving to cloud-supported infrastructure is one way these banks could shore up their products and keep customer interactions seamless. Banks looking to make this shift must consider that these systems, as well as the data that underpins them, operate in fundamentally different ways than traditional banking operations. Solutions such as Kubernetes and other containers — products that allow banks to more easily categorize, store and scale software and applications on the cloud — could therefore play crucial roles in banking’s digital future.

In the August edition of the “Digital Banks And The Power Of The Cloud Tracker®,” PYMNTS examines why FIs are utilizing cloud-native infrastructure as more customers turn to digital banking solutions as well as how products like Kubernetes can help banks manage these changes.

Around the Cloud Banking World

Australian digital-only challenger Xinja Bank is taking a microservices-based approach to banking and is looking to the cloud for further support. It will be working with a third-party technology partner to move its mobile banking capabilities to the cloud, and it will use Kubernetes to connect these features for greater insight and transparency. These technologies will also help Xinja Bank keep its users’ personal and financial data more secure without requiring it to build out costly new infrastructure.

Fellow Australian FinTech Tyro is also turning to the cloud for greater innovation, announcing that it will partner with a third-party cloud technology provider to move its term deposit product for business clients to the cloud. Tyro currently supports banking solutions for approximately 32,000 merchants and small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) in Australia. The firm says the cloud partnership will help it more swiftly tailor its products and solutions to customers’ changing needs.

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is yet another FI eyeing the cloud to give its banking offerings a boost. It will work with a third-party cloud provider to develop a private cloud environment to create more robust data analytics for its client insights. The private cloud environment will be paired with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to enable RBC to test potential changes to its software before they are fully launched and available to users. This will allow it to more quickly bring updates to market.

For more on these stories and other cloud banking headlines, visit the Tracker’s News & Trends.

Holvi on the Push To Kubernetes-Supported Banking

Consumers and businesses are beginning to expect more speed and transparency from their online banking experiences, and both are growing more sensitive to any perceived frictions when accessing their accounts. Supporting seamless experiences is becoming more difficult for entities that are still relying on legacy software, however. Solutions such as Kubernetes could help these financial entities better manage their services and make any necessary software changes without adding undue pain points, Andrew Smith, director of technical operations for Finnish financial services provider Holvi, said in a recent PYMNTS interview.

To find out more about how Kubernetes can help banks flexibly support increased server volumes, visit the Tracker’s Feature Story.

Deep Dive: How the Pandemic Is Causing FIs To Consider Cloud-Native Banking

FIs were struggling with legacy core banking systems even before the pandemic’s onset, but the recent rush to digital has only further exposed these systems’ weaknesses. Banks thus need to find solutions that can support greater volumes of digital banking customers, something for which cloud technologies are well-suited. Utilizing cloud-native banking infrastructure could allow FIs to support the ease and speed they need to ensure seamless access to users’ accounts.

To learn more about why the ongoing global health crisis is urging banks to consider cloud-native infrastructure, and how tools like Kubernetes can help them scale and support their services, visit the Tracker’s Deep Dive.

About the Tracker

The “Digital Banks And The Power Of The Cloud Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and NuoDB collaboration, examines the latest developments in digital banking, detailing how banks are utilizing the cloud and other innovative tools to enhance and personalize finance.