Avaloq CEO and deputy CEO on stage at Avaloq Community Conference
IBM and Avaloq have signed an agreement to jointly build a private “Swiss Banking Cloud”, and to update Avaloq’s IT service delivery model with IBM’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering.
IBM will provide private cloud infrastructure services in Switzerland for Avaloq, and access to its global cloud resources.
Avaloq employees in Avaloq’s data centers in Zurich and Lugano will join IBM in the existing locations. New cloud infrastructure and operating model will be fully compliant with the Swiss legal and regulatory requirements, the two companies assure.
“Today we serve all our banking clients out of our Swiss data centers connected with a dedicated Bordered Swiss Network Infrastructure (BSNI) that prevents access from outside Switzerland. IBM is compliant to Swiss banking specifics, Swiss banking laws and FINMA circulars,” states Christian Keller, general manager of IBM Switzerland.
“As financial institutions look to capitalise on tech-driven changes, there is a continued trend towards services and cloud delivery models”, says Jürg Hunziker, Avaloq group CEO. “We have engaged IBM to help us accelerate the transformation of our IT operating model.”
Tobias Unger, regional manager CH/FL Avaloq, says the Swiss Banking Cloud will be ready in H2 2018. The migration of Avaloq’s existing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) clients to the new platform is expected to happen in the first half of 2019.
The roll-out is planned to be extended to other regions where Avaloq operates in the near future.