The agreement will see a number of BNZ applications migrated to Microsoft’s Azure cloud, assisting with compliance and driving the creation of better products and services.
“This is the biggest technical migration project in BNZ’s history. With this agreement, we’ll be able to create better, more reliable and more powerful experiences for our customers and pave the way for new digital tools that will allow them to do more,” said Russell Jones, Executive General Manager, Technology and Operations at BNZ.
The announcement marks the next phase in Microsoft and BNZ parent company National Australia Bank’s five-year strategic partnership to develop a multi-cloud ecosystem underpinned by Azure.
Under the agreement, Microsoft said it will support BNZ staff with digital training and work alongside the business to engineer a custom cloud-based solution before migrating its core operations to the new data centre.
“Complex organisations have an equally complex mix of infrastructure, operations and legacy systems, and the challenge is getting the plumbing to fit together properly,” added Jones.
“Azure mitigates this, modernising the infrastructure and connecting all our systems together in the cloud to create a much more seamless experience for both our staff and our customers, so everything is always there, exactly when they need it.”
The move to the new local data centre will rationalise BNZ’s external data centres, further increasing its capacity to develop new innovations and enabling the rollout of security updates, according to the company.
Microsoft New Zealand Managing Director, Vanessa Sorenson, welcomed the announcement and said it demonstrated the vastly accelerating demand for cloud services to enhance businesses’ functionality and their customer experience.
“This past year, more than any other, has shown how crucial it is for organisations to be nimble and innovate on how they can support customers from anywhere, anytime, however people want to engage with them,” said Sorenson.
“I can’t wait to see BNZ consolidate all the innovations it’s already made in digital banking and take advantage of what will be almost limitless capacity to empower its customers even further.
“We’re delighted BNZ has begun its journey towards full cloud adoption today, so it’s ready to make the most of everything the data centre region offers from day one.”
