Commercial Bank of Dubai: innovating a future proof banking platform with Microsoft Azure

The Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has undergone a remarkable journey, embracing innovation to revolutionize the banking experience for its customers. Anchored by a unique set of values—Collaboration, Ownership, Delivery, and Excellence—CBD has earned its place among the top-tier banks in the UAE. "Our employees collaborate, take ownership, ensure delivery, and excel in all services for our customers," asserts Thomas Cherian, Chief Information Officer at Commercial Bank of Dubai. “Through these values, we aim to support the ambitions of all our clients across the UAE.”

Modernizing for a tenfold growth

Numbers speak volumes for CBD, which has seen its client base quadruple and transaction volumes surge tenfold in just four years. “We onboard around 20,000 new clients monthly,” highlights Cherian. With such exponential growth, CBD was looking to fortify its tech stack, ensuring it aligns with fast-evolving digital banking needs. “We want to make sure we have ample bandwidth to support people’s lifestyles and businesses and are here to back their ambitions,” adds Cherian.

CBD focused on a robust customer experience as their primary priority, embarking on an application modernization journey with Microsoft as one of its key partners in pursuit of scale, resilience, and security, albeit with a very lean team. “We’re just a handful of people,” Cherian shares. "Without the support of the Microsoft team, completing the revamp so quickly would not have been feasible. We condensed the analysis and prioritization into just three weeks, a task that typically takes six months," adds Cherian.

CBD leveraged Microsoft Azure, including Azure Kubernetes Services, Azure App Service, Firewall, Application Gateway, API Management, Logic Apps, GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, and Azure DevOps, to transform its digital infrastructure. The plan for application modernization extended to the integration layer, a critical component. “In banking architecture, the integration layer is like the neural system of the human body, orchestrating everything else," remarks Cherian. “Using Azure services, we've modernized it to the latest version of the software.”

Deployment velocity improvement

The CBD's technology team has seen significant benefits from the application upgrade, including improvements in efficiency, cost control, and oversight. "Our in-house software processes are now seamlessly interconnected, driving faster development and deployment," shares Cherian.

 Additionally, CBD now has clear insights into the total cost of each application, empowering business units to make decisions based on data.  "Previously, working with third-party vendors to deploy new services would take three to six months. Now, if we want to make a change, we can do it in a day," asserts Cherian. “Azure enables our technology teams to build solutions faster, thus reducing time to market.”

Speed in every transaction

Moreover, CBD's application modernization transformed the customer experience. Cherian reflects, "Previously, it took up to a day to open a new bank account. Thanks to reimagined customer journeys built on hybrid platforms with Azure as the core, it now takes few minutes." Similarly, the bank issues credit cards, which can be added to digital wallets, within minutes.

Through its application modernization efforts, CBD significantly enhanced transaction transparency, visibility, and security. "When people are taking out, receiving, or moving their money, they want it to move safely from point A to point B. We enable them to track and trace all their transactions," Cherian highlights.

With Azure, CBD’s service is seamless. “Service availability and reliability are two promises we make to our clients. Previously, we delivered on availability, but not always reliability. With Azure, that has changed.”

Forward momentum for digital banking

Another key milestone in CBD’s digital innovation was the development of the next-generation Corporate Internet Banking (CIB) platform, tailored for corporate clients. Developed in a record eight months using Azure infrastructure, it ensures stability, performance, and top-notch security with multi-factor authentication. “It runs on the cloud, which makes it scalable and efficient,” notes Cherian. “And if any of our corporate clients want to connect to their third-party systems, they can do it fast and efficiently through open APIs.” The platform marks a significant leap in CBD’s corporate banking, consolidating dispersed corporate systems into a seamless user experience. “This platform is leading in the region, a completely homegrown solution that I'm extremely proud of,” celebrates Cherian.

Looking forward, the bank is committed to continuous technological improvement to stay ahead of digital threats and meet customer expectations. Cherian reflects, “I’m grateful for the invaluable support from the Microsoft team, we achieved remarkable acceleration in our revamp process. Through strategic streamlining of our analysis and prioritization, a typically six-month endeavor was successfully condensed into a mere three weeks.”