PODCAST: Project Skyrocket: cloud-based banking is set to launch

How to launch an entirely cloud-based bank? Start with two giant Google-backed data centres

Intesa Sanpaolo is shooting for the stars in banking terms, laying the groundwork for an entirely cloud-based banking offering by creating two new cloud regions in Milan and Turin, in collaboration with Google and TIM. Project Skyrocket is ambitious in its scale and target – an undertaking that brings in data management, security and governance to boldly go into a new era of banking.

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Project Skyrocket is a name that well conveys an ambitious goal: the creation of two new Google-powered cloud regions in Turin and Milan that will host Intesa Sanpaolo’s digital services.

The cloud regions, hosted by Italian telecom giant TIM, will take two years to complete and will ensure the bank is set up to achieve its business targets, in terms of both extending and fine-tuning its digital banking services and securing its ESG commitment to the green economy.

“The cloud-first approach will promote new digital initiatives and increase the cloud skills of the bank’s people.” says Nicola Carotti, Head of Cloud Center of Excellence at Intesa Sanpaolo.

More than 12 million customers are already benefiting daily from using Intesa Sanpaolo’s digital channels, including its award-winning banking app. Through Skyrocket, the bank aims to build on this success.

The cloud project is a huge undertaking of data management, security and governance. The aim is to become a leaner, greener, more efficient organization that can provide a new all-digital bank through the cloud.

“The cloud is central to the strategy of the bank and the new business plan,” says Carotti. “Intesa Sanpaolo started years ago on a path to digitalise its services. With the new industrial plan, we want to launch a new, all-digital bank, with new functionality, new services, and the ability to scale down and scale up infrastructure.”

The bank’s new digital banking platform, Isybank, forms part of its 2022-25 business plan. Isybank will provide 4 million customers in Italy with a wide range of digital banking services, while driving a structural cost reduction for the Group.

Intesa Sanpaolo made a £40 million investment in tech company Thought Machine to provide a core banking engine, Vault Core, to power Isybank. The bank is now considering extending Thought Machine’s platform into its wider infrastructure as it continues to invest heavily in digital transformation, replacing mainframe-based core technology and moving to cloud infrastructure.

Using Google technology, the bank is innovative in its approach to its new data centres, utilising AI services to streamline operations, among other initiatives. Basing the bank’s cloud in Italy near to Intesa Sanpaolo’s home base will enable a better service.

Skyrocket will set Intesa Sanpaolo on a path of intelligent transformation while continuing to support the bank’s fundamental principles of providing quality products that support the growth of society – whether in business, personal banking or the circular economy.

“The cloud will future-proof the bank and provide new functionalities for the customer,” says Carotti. “And it will support the ESG goals of the business plan.”