Financial services enterprises are going through a period of intense competition and rapid digital transformation. The businesses invested in this wave of modernization are quickly realizing that relying on legacy database technologies is holding them back. As a result, they’ve sought out more dynamic, innovative, flexible database solutions–and they’ve found them in open source and, specifically, Postgres database.
EDB wanted to explore the reasons for this trend, why they matter to you and what you can do to take advantage of this sea change.
We recently hosted a webinar entitled “Why Postgres is Becoming the Standard in Financial Services.” In the session, Julian Moffett, EDB’s Field CTO for Financial Services discussed:
- How to overcome the challenges facing modern financial services organizations;
- Why open source software and Postgres have risen in prominence within the industry;
- Key considerations for running mission critical applications on open source software, like Postgres.
Here’s a summary of the discussion.
Drivers for transformation in Financial Services
Change is not a foreign concept to veterans of the financial services industry. In fact, because of the impact that financial services has across many other industries, dramatic change is one of its defining characteristics. The most successful enterprises in the landscape are those who know how to constantly keep up.
As Moffett explains at the outset of his presentation, this latest transformational period is energized by a number of fundamental drivers:
- Remaining competitive: As digital-first enterprises define modern financial services expectations, businesses old and new, large and small need the resources to keep up;
- Attracting and retaining talent: Financial services need innovators on their teams, but in order to attract and retain innovators, they need to prove that they themselves are an innovative business—not one tied down by old strategies;
- Improving agility: With the rise of a digital-first approach, financial services organizations need to be able to handle vast amounts of data and provide value to customers quickly. If your dev teams have to wait on hardware procurement, you’re bound to be outpaced;
- Reducing costs: Finding database and development solutions that not only encourage innovation, but don’t put a financial burden on the enterprise is a key driver within the industry. Legacy databases, with restrictive contracts and unpredictable pricing increases are no longer worth navigating;
As a result of these drivers, financial services companies have focused their attention on key initiatives such as the modernization of their databases and applications, the digitization of their business models and the consolidation of their technology stacks.
As these organizations have sought out solutions to effectively address all of these key issues, open source software—with its flexibility, high availability, agility and scalability—has proven to be a key ally.
Why open source?
According to a blog on Finextra, the rapid adoption and acquisition of open source solutions by major tech vendors has caused a major shift in perception. Today, major banks and financial institutions are entrusting their data to open source solutions.
As one of the most loved open source database solutions around, Postgres has become a standout for financial services organizations looking to shed the limitations of their current technologies and fully embrace the wave of digital transformation sweeping the industry.
The fact of the matter is that large-scale transformation requires freedom and flexibility, which proprietary database solutions often don’t provide. While developers want to use whatever they see as the best possible tool to modernize and innovate an application, a database vendor might restrict what tools you can effectively integrate, or what environments you can connect. In an industry like financial services where having absolute, unquestioned control over your data is critical, this level of restriction is problematic.
Because Postgres is open source, you won’t find yourself hemmed in with regards to what tools you can use or what sort of architecture you can build. At the end of the day, you have total control over your entire environment, priming you for digital transformation far better than if you were still working with a legacy provider on whom you had to wait for key updates and integrations.
How EDB helps you optimize Postgres
However, as Moffett explains, the financial services organizations who will find themselves in the best position to transform aren’t just those who are adopting Postgres, but those who are finding every possible way to take advantage of the database’s potential.
This includes key considerations like:
- Understanding database requirements and how your organization wants to deploy Postgres;
- Working closely with all your teams to understand their needs and demands for the database;
- Preparing your teams for the process of a database transformation/migration;
- Investing in the expertise of the Postgres community
At EDB, we’ve had the honor of working with a range of financial institutions who have told us just how impactful community resources and partnerships with database experts have been on their ability to make the most of Postgres and achieve their digital transformation goals. Providing guidance, support and deep knowledge of the inner workings of Postgres, these experts—many of whom we’re proud to call members of our teams—help organizations understand the full breadth of what Postgres can do for them.
We hope the information in this webinar provides you with a powerful foundation for your DBMS evolution.