Bendigo and Adelaide bank has undergone a multi-cloud migration project with AWS and Google, to improve outcomes for customers according to CIO Andrew Cresp.
Cresp told Digital Nation Australia that the organisation had very little experience with cloud technologies prior to the migration project.
“We were looking at the importance rather than the volume of workloads that we took to the cloud,” said Cresp.
“I remember we were actually sitting in a room about four or six weeks after I started. And we said, ‘Where are we going to go? Where are we going to start with?’ And being in a financial services organisation, obviously working with our regulators is a really important thing and ensuring that we had proper cloud governance, that we understood our risks and knew that our controls would be strong.”
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Cresp said that the organisation recognised AWS’ strengths in cloud governance and expected good guidance from them.
“Plus, they have a really good culture and connection to our organisation as far as wanting to uplift our people,” he said.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank worked with digital consultancy Contino in the design and implementation of the platform transformation.
“Both AWS and Contino have been very good in challenging us as well to say, ‘We don’t think you’re going hard enough here. Push harder. You could change this and you’ll go faster.’ Which as I said, both organisations have really adopted that challenge and support approach. I think that’s good for an organisation our size,” said Cresp.
“We’ve got lots of strength and understanding our current environment, but they’ve been helping to push us and say, ‘We’ve seen other organisations go faster here, set some more audacious goals and get after that.”
Bendigo Bank partnered with Google for its expertise in data and analytics.
“Not everyone can be great at everything. So, we chose Google, because we were actually already using Google with our banking platform for the front. And then we also use Google for data analytics in our warehouse. If you say ‘Googling’, you think data, it’s something they’re extraordinarily good at,” said Cresp.
“AWS brings some great strength in what we call a system of record area, Google in the data and the front.”
The organisation also did not want to be tied down to just one cloud vendor he said.
“This is conversations we had regularly with our board and our risk committees is to say, ‘We don’t want be locked into one vendor. What if something happens? What if for someone unknown reason they don’t behave in a way or have products working in a way that we can use for our customers and communities.
“Fundamentally we have said Google at the front, system of records with AWS, and then data analytics with Google at the back.”