DevOps Revolution Encompasses Global Infrastructure Cloud Providers

• The success of a service migration into the cloud depends heavily on the attributes of the cloud provider’s offering
• Modern IaaS offerings combine the development and operational efficiency of DevOps and the cost efficiency of infrastructure-as-a-service
• Careful evaluation of all aspects of the IaaS offering is critical to the success of a service migration

LONDON – 18 January 2017 – In recent years, the cloud computing services space has increased the variety and maturity of its solutions for the financial services sector. A key focus of cloud providers is to facilitate a DevOps environment for their infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) clients. As a result, the appeal of cloud technology solutions in terms of cost efficiencies and technological and business flexibility to firms across the financial services sector is increasing.

The GreySpark Partners report Buyer’s Guide: Cloud Infrastructure Providers for Financial Services outlines the aspects of IaaS cloud offerings that must be assessed by financial institutions before selecting a cloud provider, with a focus on the offering’s ability to facilitate a DevOps environment.

The technology approach taken by DevOps, which includes the containerisation of applications, serverless computing and continuous development, is the new frontier for cloud service delivery. Containerisation pushes the complicated IT coding needed to integrate applications into a network into the hands of a few who, subsequently, make downstream development significantly easier and less resource intensive.

The degree to which financial institutions can leverage the advantages of employing an IaaS model depends decidedly on which services they choose to migrate, the migration strategy, the depth and availability of relevant skillsets within their organisation, but – most particularly – on the specific cloud provider with which they chose to partner. The report looks at aspects of the IaaS offerings from Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure, as well as the functionality provided by OpenStack.

Bradley Wood, GreySpark Partner and Global COO, said: “Containerisation and microservices make the delivery of highly scalable and highly available applications within a cloud simpler to manage through the use of DevOps techniques like immutable infrastructure and continuous delivery. Financial institutions can then focus on building functionality at internet scale rather than being bogged down by infrastructure constraints and deployment headaches.”

Rachel Lindstrom, GreySpark Senior Consultant and report author, said: “Demand is growing from financial institutions keen to test whether cloud computing could be an effective technology model in their sector and the DevOps approach being taken by cloud infrastructure providers aligns their offerings with the developing work practices in many financial institutions IT environments.”