UBS Banks On Microsoft Azure To Drive Digital Transformation

Swiss bank UBS has chosen Microsoft Azure as the cloud platform to reduce its dependency on legacy IT and modernise its processes.

As part of a wider digital transformation strategy, UBS is using Azure to drive its risk-management platform, which requires enormous computing power to run million of calculations every day.

With the increased speed, scalability and reduced infrastructure costs provided by Azure, UBS is able to have more working capital on hand and employees are able to make quicker, more informed decisions for their clients.

UBS + Azure

“Increasing the agility and scalability of our technology infrastructure is crucial to the bank’s strategy,” said Paul McEwen, UBS Group Head of Technology Services. “With Microsoft Azure, we are building on the industry’s leading cloud platform in terms of innovation, technology, security and regulatory compliance, which is very important as a Swiss financial institution.”

As with all financial institutions, regulatory compliance was a key factor in UBS’s decision to move to Microsoft’s cloud platform.

The company’s Financial Services Compliance programme, which allows regulators to examine Microsoft cloud systems, services and processes, makes cloud operations transparent for regulators when it comes to data security and risk mitigation.

Azure’s compliance portfolio also means that USB can move to the cloud safe in the knowledge that it is meeting current compliance requirements, as well as having the ability to plan for future regulations.

And this is just the first step for UBS. It is already looking into moving more business applications to the Azure cloud as its migration strategy develops.

Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s worldwide commercial business described UBS as “a model of digital transformation in the financial services industry”, adding that Azure will enable it to “innovate while doing business all over the globe”.

Microsoft has so far been busy in 2017, adding multiple new features to Azure in the UK for local businesses to take advantage of.

In February, for example, Azure Backup and Site Recovery services were introduced to its data centres in the UK, along with advanced search capabilities that developers can add into their applications.

And last week Microsoft announced that UK customers who want to move large amounts of data to Azure are now able to have their hard drives transported to Microsoft data centres for quick and secure cloud uploads.

Quiz: The world of cloud in 2017