Telecommunications and banking have a little more in common than you might think. While many analysts believe the two industries’ technologies will converge in the future, there’s another similarity. They both have strong core capabilities and large user bases; but both still operate on large amounts of legacy IT.
Himanshu Jha (left) points out commonalities and differences. He’s in a good position to do so. While he spent a decade working at the former — “essentially building a new stack,” as he puts it — Verizon and BT, he’s spent the past decade at the latter. During his time at Barclays, Jha helped co-develop the bank’s data strategy as part of the newly formed data team to support the wider business strategy, before most recently serving as Cloud CTIO (Chief Technology and Information Officer) at Telecom Bureau of Standardization. A key factor is that while his role previously involved using the cloud, there is now an opportunity to build it.
So what does Jha make of the two areas in which he is so proficient? “Telecommunications is actually more complex than banking,” he explains. “Why? Because they own a large portion of the network and resource allocation. An important part of their business is the network and how well it operates, which really determines the customer experience. There’s a lot in common with almost everything else – a lot of legacy issues , many mainframes, many needs to move from batch mode to real-time mode.
“[That said] The sensitivity of what banks do is very high, in this case when you have an inheritance [tech] With something like this, it can hurt you more,” Jha added. “Therefore, banks need innovation more than telecom companies.
“I think banks are in some ways pioneers in technology development, [with] Put more emphasis on innovation. “
For the cloud CTIO role, there needs to be a balance of leadership, strategy, and technology. However, as with Barclays, the importance of aligning cloud strategy with business strategy (improving service, enabling hyper-personalization, using cloud analytics, and cost and efficiency) cannot be underestimated.
Jia noted the interconnections between these three disciplines. “Leadership means nothing if you can’t develop a strategy and execute it,” he explains. “And the strategy has to be contextual. So, at the same time, we have to have a cloud strategy that is part of the overall technology strategy that enables the business strategy — if something doesn’t enable the business strategy, there’s no point investing any dollars. .
“If we look more closely, data is already here, the cloud is now here, and artificial intelligence is still here. If you look at these three things together, you will find that they have strong synergy,” Jia said. “I mean, you can’t really explore data at scale without cloud products, and again, data is the key to artificial intelligence. So if you have to take advantage of these three waves, if you want to, then you have to have Reliable cloud product.”
What does this transformation look like for TSB? Broadly speaking, as Jha outlined, it has two sides: building new and maintaining old enterprise cloud platforms and services; and enabling digital, data, business applications and infrastructure through re-architecting and re-platforming Modernization of facilities to become cloud native of all kinds.
A key step is to understand which chunks should be rebuilt in AWS and Azure. The solution is that, with a few exceptions, customer-facing applications will be on AWS and co-worker-facing applications will be on Azure.
The latter includes a virtual desktop – Jha cited Azure’s strength in this area – as an example of replatforming; deploying a set of microservices on-premises and re-building them onto the IBM Cloud. “Essentially, the actual code of these microservices hasn’t changed,” Jha said. “This is redeployed on a different cloud platform, allowing for better uptime and better cost management.” Azure Synapse Analytics is also used for the consumer-centric analytics part.
“It’s fair to say [a lot of the decision is from] There are pros and cons to AWS or Azure, but you have to understand the technology well enough to use it for your solution and environment,” Jha explained.
But how to choose between architectural refactoring and platform refactoring? “If you have the time and your existing native applications really need to be re-architected, then do it,” Jha said. “But I think at least getting the operational cost value benefit out of a cloud platform, and without the need for patching and upgrading, you can get the benefit immediately by re-platforming.”
Understandably, this is a minefield and one that organizations can easily fall into. Jha identified education and cost as two major issues.
“I don’t think education is uniform,” he explains. “I’m not just talking about technology — I mean technology itself is often inconsistent — but if your business owners aren’t speaking the same language and working at the same speed, digital transformation isn’t going to happen.” It’s technical knowledge, but it’s more of a broader stroke; as Jha puts it, “a consistent understanding of where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, what technologies to use and how it’s going to really impact the outcome.”
The costs naturally align with this. Seeing these numbers, top management will want the project to be completed as efficiently as possible. But this can lead to unforeseen costs. “Suppose you have successfully entered the cloud,” Jha said. “You have to invest more and have greater capabilities across the largest skill sets. The way you deploy and develop in the cloud is very different from the skills you currently have.
“A lot of times, these projects are canceled because expectations don’t match,” Jia added. “When cloud infrastructure is in a stable state, when you move all the workloads as much as possible, cloud infrastructure brings benefits. Then the denominator increases, that is, you get benefits. But when you run some meters It’s a different story when it comes to edge use cases. You don’t see the value of the cloud then.
“It will take time to realize the full development of the cloud,” Jia said. “Not only do you have to consider the upfront cost, but you also have to consider the runtime. You’ll be running on on-premises infrastructure for a while until the application becomes stable on the cloud.
“Those two costs — I find it’s missed. People forget to factor it into their budgets.”
Jha will speak at the Cloud Transformation Conference on February 15, where he will outline how to master a cloud migration strategy to achieve business growth and agility. This talk will draw on Jia’s experience, so similar life lessons to those above are expected. However, if there is a conclusion, it is an understated but important one.
“I want people to know — because this is how I feel — that I want them to be more authentic,” Jia said. “[They] Come down from all the reports, all the promises, hype, and possibilities, and double down on the thinking, or education, or collaboration, or more boring-sounding work, to understand that the vision will never come true unless you get down to the nuts and bolts.
“People will get excited, but unless they double down and figure out the substance of how to make it really work, the excitement will never come.”
Photo by Nicholas Cappello on Unsplash
Check out the upcoming Cloud Transformation Conference, a free virtual event for business and technology leaders to explore the evolving cloud transformation landscape. Book your free virtual ticket to gain insight into the practicalities and opportunities of cloud adoption. Learn more here.
