A microservices approach can aid a financial institution’s cloud migration for its applications, given the numerous system connections of apps that must be navigated.

The $531 billion Truist, formed by the late 2019 merger of BB&T and SunTrust, and $38 billion TIAA Bank shared with Bank Automation News how the banks are deploying “microservices,” which refer to app architecture built to run in the cloud. Microservices can also be used to rebuild legacy applications to help better leverage cloud capabilities.

“When you say, ‘Hey, we’re going to move this application to the cloud,’ if you really believe that you can move every single upstream and downstream component all at one shot, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to be able to do that,” Ken Meyer, chief information officer & experience officer ― consumer technology, experience, and innovation at Truist, told Bank Automation News.

The bank was able to build its user experience and user interface architecture on top of a series of APIs, Meyers said. The bank created API or microservices at different layers of its digital stack, and many of these can be hosted in the cloud, he added.

“You’ve got to be a little bit more surgical” when migrating an app to the cloud, Meyer said.

In some cases, he explained, an app might be interfacing with a cloud-based system of record. In other cases, “You’re going to integrate all the way back to your own data centers and things that are sitting on premise,” he told BAN.

The goal with migrating systems to the cloud “is to ensure that your architecture is truly modular in nature” and can be adjusted and updated, Meyer said.

Ecosystem vision

When rebuilding or updating individual apps and services for the cloud, “There has to be a view of the entire ecosystem and a strategy that ties it together,” said John Elton, chief information officer at Jacksonville, Fla.-based TIAA Bank.

“The vision of the ecosystem, the business and technology guiderails set the foundation for the technology to be implemented,” Elton told BAN.

However, making changes to bank system components is the most efficient and risk-managed approach, he said.

“There are many vendors today that offer specialized functions within the functional ecosystem. Utilizing those in an efficient and effective way requires common interfaces that fit with the overall ecosystem vision,” Elton said.

That will help ensure maximum innovation with reduced risk and increased technology staff efficiency over time, he added.

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