Quantifi and Celent, a research and advisory firm focused on the application of information technology in the financial services industry, co-hosted a webinar on ‘Microservices: The New Building Blocks of Financial Technology’. Delegates were surveyed to measure industry opinion on adopting a microservices approach and highlight technology challenges faced with traditional monolithic platforms.
Most firms have invested in technology capabilities to satisfy new practices and regulatory requirements, however, much remains to be done to operate efficiently. As traditional systems grow and more updates are bolted on they become too complex and inflexible to the extent that they become incompatible with new technologies and tools. Microservices is emerging as the critical differentiator, as companies can take advantage of the flexibility, efficiency, resiliency and scalability, which ultimately facilitate a lower total cost of ownership.
Key Findings:
- Firms face multiple technology challenges. Most firms agree that low level of system innovation makes it difficult to adjust quickly to change. Another pressing challenging was dispersed front-to-back processes causing low level of standardised operations across the enterprise.
- The majority of firms (82%) are either evaluating the benefits of a microservices architecture, or in the early stage proof of concept. Quantifi sees microservices as the future of risk technology.
- All firms view flexibility and receptiveness to incremental change as the key benefit of microservices vs a monolithic architecture. Other benefits include scalability, and easy deployment/integration.
Quantifi has stayed ahead of the competition by continuing to make smart investments in new technology that translate into long-term value for clients. A key focus of the past 12 months has been to make Quantifi more open and flexible by separating out its architecture to microservices. This investment has reshaped how Quantifi serves its clients by addressing the modern business imperatives of speed, agility and scalability. A microservices architecture makes initial implementation and future upgrade simple and low risk. Clients also benefit from unparalleled flexibility and customisation.
“The business case for converging risk and finance data environments has now become more compelling. Firms are faced with important choices with whether or not to respond strategically to rationalize risk and finance data environments as opposed to continuing to adopt tactical solutions that impose a structural drag on a firm’s ability to meet and manage its obligations”, comments Cubillas Ding, Director of Research, Celent. “In the mid- to-long term, we expect that the smart evolution, utilization and deployment towards microservices will be one of the bedrocks for future evolution of front office, risk, and compliance systems innovation”, continues Cubillas.