In my initial weeks of my career in the financial and banking industry my ability to give in-depth feedback on a vendor project of the size and complexity of the current Architecture Simplification is limited. I'll therefore take a step back and focus on a high level view of what I believe the banking industry is going to experience in the near future and how it ties in with the strategy behind Architecture Simplification .
In my opinion big banks are going to be majorly disrupted in the next decade. An argument can be made that different industries have been disrupted along a line of increasing regulatory hurdles and risk to consumers.
Initially newspapers and magazines suffered dwindling readerships as a consequence of web publishing. TV and retail followed suit. Thereafter we have seen the rise of the sharing economy and its major impact on established industries, with Uber and Lyft undermining the taxi industry and Airbnb the hotel industry for instance.
I believe the next wave will include industries with even higher levels of regulations and risks to consumers such as finance and health. As with the previous waves of disruption the legacy free and tech savvy - now possibly experts in machine learning, blockchain, fintec, but surely the innovation willing and ready will thrive and the established ones will struggle.
The big banks will be the incumbents who will have to learn how to be humble and brave. They will have to prepare for a good fight and a very reasonable chance to lose anyway. None of this will happen overnight but there is a good chance that the game will be a losing one long before many have come to terms with it.
I hear banks are not software companies. I believe this mindset is a huge mistake. If banks are to stand a chance, they must be willing and even wanting to become a software company. A great one in fact. One that attracts talented people and provides a good work environment.
Software companies do not outsource the development of software and systems central to their business. If outside vendors renovate core internal systems most knowledge is lost and no true innovation possible.
Even if the buzzwords - microservices, container orchestration, cloud - seem to be the right ones, if there aren't any people on the inside who feel pride in and ownership of these ways and systems, it becomes very hard to evolve them, to think laterally and to try out new things. And of course a sense of ownership, lateral thinking and an environment that allows for easy prototyping are crucial to fostering a can-do culture and innovation.
So my recommendation is to find and create expertise in house. Otherwise you will likely end up with another vendor solution that results in patched systems that nobody loves or fully understands. Why would anything be different this time? Truly great software is rarely created by vendors. It comes from passionate individuals within who care, have an idea to chase down, feel ownership, and want to effect change.