Bank in Angola optimizes costs and unlocks value with Azure

BMA was founded in 2006 to provide Angolans with the stability and security they need to plan their financial futures. Traditionally, Angolan banks had been reluctant to embrace technology, primarily due to security concerns. Going against this trend, BMA became the first national bank in Angola to offer its customers a way to open an account on their mobiles without having to go to a physical bank. Although it had already taken a huge step towards digitization, BMA was eager to go further by moving to the cloud.

The bank recognized that the cloud was the right place to store data and applications and could also help with scaling up to meet the future needs of the market. It would also end the need to manage four servers, more than 12 databases, and the hassle of daily incremental backups to disks. In fact, BMA’s servers, where the Exchange services were located, were already deprecated.

Partnering with Microsoft in a highly regulated environment

Security was a top priority when choosing a cloud solution. As a bank, regulatory compliance was paramount. “Given all of the aspects we had to consider, it was very important to choose a partner who aligned with us in terms of collaboration and internal processes,” remarks Manuel. “In that regard, Microsoft undoubtedly took the lead.”

Although BMA purchased the Microsoft Azure solution in 2018, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that accelerated the process of adopting, migrating, and allocating resources to the cloud. “Two years after the initial purchase, we started experimenting with Azure and, today, we have a fully dedicated environment in Azure. It's an evolution,” says Manuel.

Offering more value to internal teams

BMA implemented Microsoft solutions one by one in response to its needs, starting with Microsoft Teams. To integrate the platform with its internal system, the bank needed to make a hybrid connection between its identity manager—Active Directory—and Azure Active Directory. Having successfully linked the two, BMA then worked on its local Exchange environment and connected it with Microsoft’s online Exchange. “Today we have the entire Exchange environment in the cloud. We are planning to discontinue local servers, which were deprecated anyway,” says Manuel. “We’ve also adopted Azure Information Protection, which is crucial for classifying, labeling, and protecting our client's sensitive documents and our emails. At the same time, we started to implement Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) to gain the ability to quickly develop and deploy apps.”

Adoption wasn’t always easy for BMA. It involved a mindset change and experiencing the benefits firsthand. “After the initial hesitation, our teams soon realized that having the internal process of our bank on Azure did not necessarily expose us to security risks. Instead, Azure Information Protection Management helped us to multiply our efforts. We gained more coverage, delivery, and scalability,” explains Manuel.

BMA’s internal processes have also transformed for the better, changing the way they collaborate and share files. “Today, we have a more collaborative environment. A single file can be shared with both internal and external stakeholders, by applying access controls, including time limits on file access, and security measures. We are saving a significant amount of time on processes such as editing, document sharing, and adding security criteria. All of this ultimately impacts the satisfaction levels of our end-users—our customers. It's just fantastic,” enthuses Manuel.

Bringing asset management to the cloud

The bank also benefits from operational enhancements, including ease of asset management, which freed up time to focus on innovation and advancements into the future. Hildebrand Almada, IT Infrastructure Coordinator at BMA explains, “I think we were spending 10 hours a week managing and administering our services previously. Today, we barely spend two hours a week. We no longer need to worry about the hosts, servers, or even about updates at the server level.”

“We’re much more focused on looking at our infrastructure, innovating, improving processes that already worked in the past, and strengthening our security,” says Manuel. “In short, we’re focused on modernizing.”

“With cloud services, we are able to eliminate all points of failure," says Almada. “We have created process and equipment redundancy so if one server fails, then the other one will continue operating. The switch can be made instantly, and the user doesn't even notice the change.”  

The bank's open-source cloud strategy is now in full swing. “We are more agile, more mobile, and more secure than ever,” says a happy Manuel. Microsoft solutions have helped BMA improve its collaboration abilities and reduce costs by eliminating the need to buy servers or hire more resources to manage hardware and software. Manuel says, “I can tell you one thing for sure: We’re going to be a digital bank and grow, and we’re counting on Microsoft for that.”