act digital, Microsoft and Bradesco talk about challenges of the Cloud journey

On the last day of Febraban Tech 2023 we gathered an excellent team to discuss the “Track: cloud puts future in motion” (Trilha: nuvem coloca futuro em movimento). Facilitated by the IT Media Content Director, Deborah Oliveira, the executive officers Frédéric Martineau (CTO act digital), Anderson Fogagnoli (Superintendent of Engineering and Cloud Platform at Bradesco) and Eduardo Joia (CTO and Managing Director at Microsoft) talked about "The challenges of migrating a giant to the cloud".

During the panel, we discussed not only the challenges, but also the opportunities of migrating to the cloud, as well as the importance of managing security, systems and persons. These topics exemplify how technology tied to people can be the major gain for a large corporation.

We are living the second phase of the cloud. The model today is much more mature, and is attracting giants. According to the IT Media ‘Before IT, Strategy’ study that interviewed more than 600 IT leaders, public cloud is now the main infrastructure model used by large companies. In addition, 49% of the companies have already a structured migration plan and much of it executed with processes established.

act digital is a partner of Bradesco, one of the largest financial institutions in the country. Currently, the company is faced with the challenge of migrating this giant to the cloud, basing the project on several pillars of action such as security, FinOps, technology and persons. To start the discussion about these pillars and the impacts of migration, Frédéric commented on the differentials that lead a project to results: “We follow large companies in the financial sector undergoing digital transformation, and success is attributable to a strong alignment between business executive officers when defining the reasons and objectives of this journey, in order to design a clear roadmap of the migration to the cloud. Another important point is to map the necessary competencies - we need to understand which team we have in house, which skills to develop and which players we can bring in to drive this challenge. Security, focus on data, focus on financial management, evolve infrastructure operating models and have good governance are central themes that deserve attention. I cannot forget: counting on a good partner to carry out migration is essential.”

As a technology company, we know that the challenges of migration were and still are many - and that counting on partners really makes the process less painful. Anderson said a little about the motivator of the cloud journey at the bank: “We are talking about Bradesco, a company with 80 years of existence. Our challenges include reviewing processes, culture, empower our teams with training and workshops. It is a constant review of processes, standardization of architectures, modernization and transformation of applications, with a strong focus on automation. For these and other challenges, we have an ecosystem of partners, who, like act digital and Microsoft, complement our teams with knowledge.”

act digital works directly in the acceleration of the cloud, with the creation of the foundation and supporting on the fronts of Cybersecurity, Automation, Development, Operations, Engineering, Cloud Platform, among other disciplines. “We also develop the Playbook: the document describing the tasks and strategies in the stages to achieve the project’s objective”, adds Frédéric.

And how has Microsoft used its knowledge to contribute to the success of the project? Eduardo said that to make the most of cloud security, the partnership relies on technical support, training and engineers specialized in Azure - so the project gains agility and scalability, in addition to the focus on culture change.

From the left to the right: Déborah Oliveira, Frédéric Martineau, Anderson Fogagnoli and Eduardo Joia.

Being in the cloud universe is a need and it is not new.

Bradesco started the journey in 2015 with the construction of the private cloud. “We started to make this change and preparation for what was to come and, since then, with the modernization of applications, looking at digital channels, we have a roadmap for the path we should follow. The combination of external experts with the bank’s employees brings us a lot of content and helps to take the migration program to the next level”, reports Anderson.

It is no wonder that the cloud remains on the rise. Eduardo said what differentiates this technology: “Cloud environments are much more homogeneous - therefore more secure. Among other things, customers benefit from massive investments made by the cloud provider and can add layers, such as their own encryptions. Another security factor is that we apply what is called “zero trust”, i.e., isolate business areas so that any problem that occurs only impacts that cell, and does not contaminate the others”. Joia also commented on how AI can collaborate with companies’ data security.

And the most anticipated point for the debate is related to financial management. Anderson commented how integration between areas is key to the success of the project and FinOps: “We are a connected IT – the program considers the FinOps bank to be the responsibility of all employees. We work on the platform model, that is, we have what we call the Nucleus of a given discipline, where standards, policies, rites, among others, are created, and these standards are shared with the representatives of this discipline who are located in Villages and Enterprises, which attend to projects in those locations. This way the spread is greater and faster. We combine the use of tools with processes for greater cost control, generating alerts and constant monitoring.”

And the most expected point for the debate is related to financial management. Anderson commented how integration between areas is key to the success of the project and FinOps: “We are a connected IT - the program considers the FinOps bank the responsibility of all employees. We work in the platform model, i.e., we have what we call the Core of a given discipline where standards, policies, rites, among others, are created, and these standards are shared with the representatives of this discipline that is allocated in Villages and Enterprises that serve the projects in those sites. In this way the dissemination is greater and faster. We reconcile the use of tools with processes for greater cost control, generating alerts and constant monitoring”.

Our work in partnership with Bradesco and Microsoft continues. The project was divided into three phases and is currently in the first: focus on digital channels, offer a better experience for customers. In the second phase, the focus will be on analytics and, finally, the migration will be directed to the other companies in the group.

If you want to watch the panel in full, check out the video below.

The challenges of migrating a giant to the cloud.

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