In his Cloud & Infrastructure Edge presentation, Jason O’Connell, CTO of Banking and Financial Services at Macquarie Group, details Macquarie’s cloud migration journey, their multi-cloud approach, and their cloud 2.0 strategy.

Jason explains how Macquarie, as a digital-only bank, is now 96% public cloud and multi-cloud. The benefits of this shift include the ability to innovate more efficiently and align closely with business strategies.

Their adoption of Kubernetes and micro-services enables a smoother transition to cloud-based solutions.

They do face challenges like the initial difficulty in deploying Prometheus and the necessity of self-service infrastructure for application teams.

Jason also discusses their move towards a no-ops model, which reduces the operational burden by leveraging cloud-native services that require minimal maintenance.

He emphasises the importance of using the best services from multiple clouds rather than trying to be cloud-agnostic.

This strategy allows them to invest resources in enhancing developer experiences, integrating various tools and platforms to streamline operations and minimising manual interventions, ultimately fostering a more agile and innovative environment.

Developing robust internal platforms around core technologies indicates that server-less technologies can become highly effective if well-integrated and built into a comprehensive developer platform.

There is a shift towards product thinking, focusing on understanding the needs of engineers and creating user-centric solutions.

These solutions include vulnerability management throughout the software development lifecycle, to enhance efficiency and justify funding based on demonstrated value.

Looking ahead, they aim to move from low-level infrastructure towards higher-order services, prioritising the productivity and ease of engineers to drive business outcomes, and rapidly enabling advanced technologies like AI to support new business features.

This approach aims to create a more agile, efficient, and innovative development environment within the organisation.

 

Key takeaways:

Cloud migration and multi-cloud approach: Macquarie Group has successfully transitioned to a 96% public cloud environment, adopting a multi-cloud strategy that enhances innovation and aligns closely with business strategies.

No-Ops model and developer experience: A no-ops model using cloud-native services reduces operational burdens and enhances the developer experience through integrated tools and platforms.

Product thinking: Shifting towards product thinking, Macquarie prioritises understanding engineers’ needs and leveraging higher-order services like AI to drive business outcomes and create an agile, innovative development environment.

Contributors
Jason O’Connell Chief Technology Officer - Banking & Financial Services at Macquarie Group
Jason O’Connell is Chief Technology Officer for Macquarie Bank. Macquarie Bank is the Australian retail banking arm of Macquarie Group. As a... More

Jason O’Connell is Chief Technology Officer for Macquarie Bank. Macquarie Bank is the Australian retail banking arm of Macquarie Group.

As a Digital only bank, Macquarie has invested heavily in technology, and has close to 100% of its systems running on public cloud. Jason has a strong focus on the power of platforms to improve developer experience, as well as automation at scale. Strategically Macquarie Bank is moving towards cloud-native higher order services, to reduce operations, increase scale and unleash innovation for the business.

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cloud data transformation