Cloud Enablement for Payments Industry using Micro-Services Architecture (MSA)
The payment industry is trying to catch up with the trends in cloud computing,but at the same time, would prefer to be cautious about full scale implementation due to several factors.These include, but are not limited to,the ambiguity around the security protocols, compliance & regulatory procedures to be adhered to, scalability & reliability parameters. The cloud solution proposed in this paper addresses the issue of security while improving the usability and convenience of the cloud technology. The solution would allow a financial institution to deploy their Payment Solutions over a distributed and scalable cloud environment, including provisions for multi-tenancy. With the advent and rise of independent platforms like Spring-Cloud, Docker and Kubernetes, there are promising opportunities to make a business case for moving the core systems like Switch or Card Management Systems onto the cloud. The considerations would involve implementing both the functional services (such as Customer Profile Service) and infrastructure services (such as hardware provisioning, application logging& monitoring, service registry, load balancing). The paper also discusses typical steps and the technology stack required for moving a set of services on cloud. The paper argues that such transformations are not without challenges or risks; but a well-documented and choreographed plan can ensure a stable platform on the cloud, that also saves cost of infrastructure and other services.
Digital transformation has been a buzzword for years now, though it means many different things to many different people. This white paper seeks to explore the nature of the modernization of payments and why banks and fintechs must position themselves as technology leaders to survive this critical period of growth in the payments space
Some key facts/considerations::
- Key domain areas in the Payments space include Remittances, Switch Services, Payments Gateways, Card Management Services, Hardware Security Modules (both software and hardware HSM).
- There is no definite solution to the HSM on cloud and the paper deliberates on certain aspects, risks, and possible solutions subject to a “Proof of Concept” by the organization and conducting a compliance & regulatory review before planning for it.
- DevOps must be accepted as a paradigm shift or “cultural shift” for an effective, agile, and cloud based CI-CD model. It’s not a mere technology change, but a combination of changes in team orientation, product development and deployment methodology, organization structure, metrics measurement and performance analysis, and adoption of newer maturity models.