Bank of Ceylon (BOC), the nation’s leading banking provider, recently completed the deployment of the country’s first-ever private cloud in partnership with KBSL Information Technologies Limited (KBSL), VMware and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). To celebrate this achievement, KBSL hosted a private event at the Courtyard by Marriott.
BOC’s existing infrastructure required digital disruption and the bank’s continuous expansion required uninterrupted capabilities to efficiently operationalize its infrastructure and support upcoming projects. Having identified these challenges and risks, VMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software providing cloud, networking and security, and digital workspace solutions, envisioned and designed a state-of-the-art architecture in collaboration with KBSL and HPE. The architecture will aim to support the bank’s digital transformation journey, offering agility at the pace of cloud adoption and building a future-ready architecture.
With the implementation of the private cloud on-premises, BOC will have an automated and simplified data center management, more intrinsic security platform for business-critical workloads, and be able to deploy and release newer versions of applications using some of the very latest technologies, with the ability to scale solutions across private and public cloud, giving higher agility, speed-to-market, and relevance.
“The partnership with KBSL, VMware, and HPE has demonstrated the ability for key partners of the bank to deliver exemplary technology solutions that are best of breed. We believe this initiative will enhance the experience delivered to all our stakeholders involved to their utmost satisfaction.” said President's Counsel Ronald C. Perera, Chairman, Bank of Ceylon.
“As the leading bank in the country, we work to deliver best-in-the-class products and services to all our stakeholders. With the synergy that was brought together with this collaboration, the bank can help its customers to deliver a world-class service and fulfill its commitments as a state bank towards the Sri Lankan economic wellbeing,” stated Russel Fonseka, General Manager, Bank of Ceylon.
‘‘We are incredibly proud of the project management teams that worked on this tirelessly, and the learning we gained out of this implementation was simply so invaluable. We pursued various agile methodologies with daily standup meetings and fortnightly steering committee meetings for instance,” said Haritha Rajapakse, Acting Head of IT at Bank of Ceylon.
The deployment also includes other technologies such as VMware Tanzu, a modular, cloud native application platform that accelerates development, delivery, and operations across multi-clouds.
‘‘We are very excited to realize what we once envisioned, having put together an amazing tech stack that will enable BOC to be one of the most technologically savvy banking providers in the next few years. We take this opportunity to thank KBSL and VMware teams for all their support,” Rajapakse further added.
“We are happy to collaborate with Bank of Ceylon in this landmark initiative," said Venkatesh Murali, General Manager and Country Leader, Nascent Markets & Vietnam, VMware. “The deployment of the country's first private cloud demonstrates Bank of Ceylon's commitment to embracing the latest technologies and driving digital innovation. By leveraging VMware’s multi-cloud software solutions, Bank of Ceylon is well-positioned to optimize their operations, enhance customer experiences, and maintain their position as a leader in the banking sector.”
“Hewlett Packard Enterprise is delighted to handhold with KBSL in this turnkey project delivery. As a part of HPE’s data first modernization approach, we have provided a robust AI driven compute platform for this deployment,” said Dinendra Perera, Country Business Lead, Sri Lanka & Maldives, HPE.
Ehantha Sirisena, CEO of KBSL Information Technologies, said, ‘‘As one of the country’s leading systems integrators, deploying this first-of-its-kind project together with VMware gives us a pioneering edge in the private cloud space. Our sincere thanks to the team at BOC for their utmost trust in us and to all the teams that made this a success.’’
