When Swiss banking software provider Temenos began using the public cloud about a decade ago, it launched with Microsoft, believing that Azure was the most advanced cloud for handling data security. But that single-cloud-provider mindset is long-gone.
Temenos — which provides financial services software to over 3,000 banks worldwide, including UBS and HSBC — now also has partnerships with both Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, and believes that allowing customers to use more than one provider is key to its success, according to president of North America, Alexa Guenoun.
To that end, Temenos announced earlier this year that its software would also run on Anthos, Google Cloud's product that makes it easy for customers to synch applications across multiple public clouds as well as private data centers.
A multicloud strategy is increasingly becoming the norm, as a Gartner survey found that 81% of cloud users work with two or more providers. Anthos gives customers more flexibility to use multiple platforms, Guenoun says, which is particularly important for banks due to various financial regulations around the world. Many banks still keep sensitive data on-premises to comply with regulations while also wanting to take advantage of cloud tools, for example, or need to use multiple clouds to reduce the risk of outages.
It could be a disaster if an issue with a cloud provider took down the banking tools that people and businesses relied on even briefly, Guenoun said.
"If we want the adoption of cloud to grow to super-scale in the banking area — big banks that service millions of customers in their domestic market — we would have to be reassured that there's a backup plan," she said.
Beyond helping customers use multiple clouds, Anthos may also attract finance customers to other Google tools, and Guenoun says she has seen more customers selecting Google Cloud.
"It's fair to say in financial services, Google is a new entrant," Guenoun said. "They're making a huge push, and Anthos is a big way for them to push. For now, we are seeing a lot of interest from customers, asking what they can do."
As for Temenos, it will have invested $1 billion in research and development to improve its products in the next three years.
"We have a sizable investment to keep our foot up," Guenoun told Business Insider. "We want to make sure we can benefit from the latest technology on the market."
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