How PrivatBank moved operations to the cloud: the technical side of processes

PrivatBank, in cooperation with Visa, moved operations to the cloud in a month and a half. The connection in the CEMEA region (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) was organized for the first time. DOU learned how the process went from a technical point of view.

The main thing is that after the start of a large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, PrivatBank decided to move all operations to the cloud. This was necessary to reduce dependence on hardware that is located in different regions of Ukraine, and, accordingly, is under threat of destruction while the war continues.The bank decided to cooperate with Visa. We are talking about the Visa Cloud Connect platform, a cloud infrastructure that allows customers to connect to VisaNet to process transactions. This eliminates banks ' dependence on telecommunications infrastructure.Visa Cloud Connect accepts and authorizes all types of cards and transactions, including non-Visa transactions, for referral to the appropriate Card Association or processing gateway. In addition, Visa Cloud Connect can send and receive batch files to and from VisaNet's main processing systems.From a technical point of view, the activation process is as follows: PrivatBank independently deployments its systems (basic, processing, and others) in the cloud. First, a test stand is formed, then Visa sets up a cloud connection for PrivatBank from the bank's systems to VisaNet, the company explains to DOU. The latter process may take 2-3 months or even more, but it was implemented in 1.5 months. Then, as a rule, the bank adds additional encryption, which is not necessary when using terrestrial communication channels, but it is mandatory for the cloud. In the end, after building and testing the connection, the bank redirects all traffic to the cloud system. In the process, there were some difficulties in the specific configuration of firewalls. It also took some time to finalize TLS encryption. However, in the end, the project was implemented without critical complications, visa noted DOU. Details

Visa has first organized connectivity from a public cloud processing environment in the CEMEA region (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) since the platform became available in late 2021 in the United States. Visa did not build a technology platform for the SEMEA region before, because it studied the needs of the markets. However, an exception was made for Ukraine, given the risk to the country's financial system.

In an interview with DOU, Mariusz Kaczmarek, Deputy Chairman of the management board of PrivatBank, said that PrivatBank has 20 million customers and 15 million online users of Privat24. At peak times, the bank's services are used by more than 100,000 people at a time.

Out of 500 systems, PrivatBank chose 330 of the most critical ones. Virtually everything that customers use — Privat24, card payments, authorization systems, service functions, contact center infrastructure, ATM connection, POS terminals-has been transferred to the cloud since the end of April and works from there.

"Transferring services to cloud storage provides customers with continuous access to financial services (cards, digital banking, banking services, access to cash, etc.) at any time. It's about protecting customer data and funds," says Mariusz Kaczmarek.