A familiar challenge
For high-growth companies, better access to data generally leads to better decision-making. But as companies face the need to process more and more data, their server infrastructure must grow with them. To meet demand, IT departments are faced with a familiar problem: provide highly secure and faster access to meaningful data without experiencing the physical limitations of existing hardware investments.
A large financial institution confronted this very challenge. Processing countless sensitive transactions requires an immense amount of resources for both hardware assets and their employees. For the institution, running these calculations on a regular basis was taking its toll. While simply upgrading the number of internally hosted servers seemed the likely answer, the financial institution sought a smarter solution. That is when they turned to WWT.
Growing infrastructure while reducing risk and costs
The customer's goal was to move from a traditional infrastructure environment to a dynamic and scalable cloud-capable one. This new environment required true flexibility and resiliency both internally and externally. But as one of the largest banks in the country, the customer also required a cloud solution they could trust to properly encrypt and protect sensitive financial data.
WWT worked in close collaboration with the customer's teams — including infrastructure, security and application development teams — to help establish a road map for success and diagnose risks within and around each group. Together, a cloud-based solution was identified that would not only process transactions quickly but also do so while meeting the customer's high security standards. With their ability to work as both a custom software and a platform integrator, WWT delivered the public arm of a hybrid cloud platform that the customer trusts to handle secure data, and one that gives them the flexibility to scale infrastructure based on evolving organizational needs. As a result of implementing this new hybrid cloud platform, the bank is set up to access a new, self-healing type of infrastructure. Additionally, the platform is optimized to eventually take advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence at scale — ultimately reducing operational workforce tasks and improving the bottom line.
From idea to implementation
To implement this hybrid cloud solution, WWT worked with the customer to take base operating system images and layer on additional configurations. These configurations — selectable by each application — incorporate key security components, including firewall rules. These images can be applied and scaled to numerous cloud providers, allowing for more seamless transitions from the existing workflow. Adhering to agile philosophy, WWT followed a streamlined process that included:
The financial institution's ultimate goal was to carry out a fundamental shift in how they could build higher-quality software using agile methodologies. To accomplish this, they needed a partner they could rely on and a solution they could trust. With a hybrid cloud platform from WWT, the customer has a flexible and secure solution that provides valuable benefits for the entire organization. They are now equipped with a more adaptable and secure platform while business stakeholders at the bank have a more timely understanding of their ongoing business performance — ultimately allowing for quicker changes and pivots in corporate financial decision-making. Benefits to the customer included:
- Ability to handle an increase in sensitive revenue-generating data.
- Mitigating the cost, risk and dependency on third-party products.
- Flexibility to scale infrastructure in real time.
