National Australia Bank group and Microsoft announced a new five-year strategic partnership to co-design, develop and invest in the NAB group’s multi-cloud technology. Although AWS had the first-mover advantage at NAB, Microsoft has clawed back with the five-year partnership.
Highlights:
- NAB will be using Azure as its primary cloud for the next 1,000 apps
- Microsoft and NAB Group to share development costs and resourcing investment
- NAB had already moved more than 800 apps to public cloud providers as part of its cloud-first, multi-cloud strategy
- Apps on the public cloud will move from one third to around 80 per cent by 2023
- Aware of the international impact it promises, Microsoft’s global engineering team is supporting the program
- Microsoft will also train 5,000 NAB and BNZ technologists as part of the NAB Cloud Guild program
Also read: NAB leverages Human-Centric Design to expand Data and Analytics Guild
NAB Group Executive Technology and Enterprise Operations, Patrick Wright said “The needs of our customers haven’t changed, but their expectations of how we deliver a more personalised service has.
To deliver for customers, we need to invest in the latest technology, leveraging global leaders like Microsoft to help us bring new services to our customers, quickly and at scale.”
Jointly architect a multi-cloud ecosystem that will host 1,000 of the banks’ apps to Azure as the primary cloud
ITVibes Insights:
Building a compelling value proposition for the multi-cloud ecosystem is imperative for cloud players. Gartner forecast 19% increase in Public Cloud services spending in 2020 even as it forecast technology spending shrink by 8% globally and 6% in Australia.
As Microsoft is a latecomer to the cloud party at NAB, AWS that had the early-bird advantage. However, with the new partnership, Microsoft has captured a significant position in the bank’s cloud migration journey.
Microsoft is expected to carry the lessons and experience from this partnership globally, sharpening its Azure value proposition. The tech giant recently acquired Metaswitch Netwoks and Acclaimed Networks aimed at bolstering its Azure proposition.
Also read: Microsoft acquires Softmotive, bolsters Power Automate and low-code movement
With the Fintech and Big Tech impacting financial services with attractive interest rates and value propositions, established players like NAB have to offer new features to their current services and improve customer experience.
NAB recently announced a range of digital features to improve customer experience:
- iMessage and Whatsapp support
- Online cheque deposit feature
- Voice ID biometrics
- Digital Option To Restrict Gambling Transactions
