Mainframe to Cloud: How to shift applications

The financial services industry is increasingly turning to the cloud to resolve challenges involving the movement of money. However, some banks, payments providers, capital markets firms and insurance companies are still questioning why an accelerated shift to the cloud is required. Further, what are the conditions, circumstances and considerations that should be taken into account when looking to migrate applications?

It’s not just about technology. It’s about culture and the talent that is needed to transform from a legacy-based infrastructure and deal with a more agile method of operating and collaborating with partners in a cloud environment. This generational repositioning should be managed in an efficient manner to facilitate a successful, safe passage of moving from one domain to another.

The mainframe, or the central repository, in an organisation’s data centre is usually linked to its users through workstations or terminals. Although the presence of a mainframe often implies a centralised form of computing, they are in dire need of modernisation.

Those with awareness of how to transform the mainframe, how to consume the cloud, and who are able to to establish a strategic blueprint for their digital transition will be better positioned to retain their customer base. Each financial institution will have a different journey to the cloud: some will opt for a hybrid model, others will transform with the cloud or to the cloud.

Mainframes present vast opportunities, but the time has come for the self-written applications and the mainframe-based business processes to be modernised.

To explore these opportunities, specialists gathered for a Finextra webinar, ‘Mainframe Modernisation: The cloud shift’, that was hosted in association with Deloitte and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The webinar panel looked to discuss how mainframes can provide mission critical functionalities for financial institutions and the very specific challenges that come with modernising mainframes. This event report outlines the findings from that session.