Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) is faced with the challenge of making sure the operation and development of its application landscape is fit for the future. To achieve fail safety, geo-redundancy, scalability and innovative capacity, it is considering the utilisation of a public cloud. Alongside many technical and business questions, the management team and Bank Council also need to ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements. The BKB is looking for a partner that will provide advice, assistance and active support in strategic, organisational and technical issues on its journey to the cloud.

In a first step, Zühlke and the BKB are jointly defining the strategic principles in harmony with the business and IT strategy. We are defining a cloud vision and a roadmap for the migration and modernisation of the application landscape that take account of business-critical applications, lifecycle issues and modified work practices. To do so we are using a framework that is tailored to the needs of the BKB. In addition to IT, the Finance & Risk, Legal & Compliance and Security departments are also being involved at an early stage. Together we are evaluating hyperscalers, designing a suitable cloud architecture, creating the basis for the cloud with landing zones, performing PoCs and cloud migrations and defining the future cloud target operating model in the context of the cloud migrations. The cloud principles we develop together will be discussed with the Bank Council and management team and adopted.

The cloud strategy that was developed and the transformation roadmap give the BKB a clear steer on its journey to the cloud, creating transparency over the expected business effects of using the cloud and the necessary capital investment. A pilot migration gives the BKB’s employees an opportunity to experience the cloud journey for themselves. Thanks to the one-team approach and the support we provide as a transformation partner, we are ensuring a continuous transfer of knowledge and empowering the BKB to control the journey itself and operate the cloud independently. This both results in a high buy-in and enhances the attractiveness of the BKB as an employer in an ever more difficult talent market. The journey-to-cloud project thus creates the basis for the rapid implementation of innovations.