Unionbank of the Philippines announced on Wednesday that it is migrating its IT infrastructure from on-premises to the cloud by 2022 in an effort to accelerate the bank’s digital transformation and improve customers’ digital banking experiences.
The bank chose Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, as its cloud platform. The bank is poised to become the first major Philippine bank fully hosted in the cloud.
Once the migration is complete, UnionBank will run almost 400 so-called “mission-critical applications” on AWS, including Finacle Core Banking and SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, to further modernize its IT infrastructure, drive operational efficiencies, and innovate new services.
By scaling its operational workloads on demand using AWS, UnionBank expects to reduce infrastructure maintenance and operation costs by $1 million over the next 5 years.
UnionBank is also migrating over 900 virtual machines to VMware Cloud on AWS. As a result, it expects to generate savings of over 30 percent over 5 years and create a return on investment in less than 18 months.
The bank expects to benefit from increased staff productivity, reduced unplanned downtime, and increased business agility through faster deployment of new, externally-facing applications.
Earlier this month, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Benjamin Diokno said more banks are moving towards “cloud-based” technology as digitalization continues to gain traction in the industry.
The BSP chief said about 30 financial institutions (FIs) have transitioned towards hosting their core banking solutions in the cloud as of end-March this year.
“The BSP recognizes the greater efficiency of these digital platforms in the delivery of financial products and services and in expanding reach into the unserved and underserved market segments,” Diokno said.
With its goal to become the first major bank in the country to be fully hosted in the cloud, UnionBank is investing in a cloud training program for staff.
The bank said it is providing training courses designed by AWS Training and Certification to more than 500 employees, including both in-depth technical training for information technology staff and cloud fundamentals training for business stakeholders.
“UnionBank is using AWS to bring banking to the millions of people in the Philippines who need access to financial services to help uplift their lives,” said Dennis Omila, Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Operations Officer, UnionBank.
“The breadth and depth of the world’s leading cloud provider enables us to more quickly launch new financial services, including a mobile bank on wheels to scale financial inclusion in remote areas and help Filipinos everywhere to bank digitally. Now, more consumers, farmers, fishers, and local businesses will have access to the tools to help better manage cash flow, making it easier to send and receive payments.”