The BFSI industry in Singapore is booming like never before, playing a key role in the country’s economy. As a key international financial center, companies in Singapore are serving the domestic market while also meeting the needs of customers across the Asia-Pacific region. 

With the Singapore BFSI sector expected to grow by an average annual rate of 4-5% until 2025 and create more than 3,000 jobs on average each year, Singapore is sure to maintain its position as a leading international financial center in Asia. 

Yet, when it comes to implementing new technologies and embracing trends like DevOps, it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride. Read on to learn how you can streamline software delivery and operations in the highly regulated and seemingly tech-averse BFSI sector. 

The Challenges of DevOps in BFSI

As economic headwinds continue to impact the global business landscape, BFSI companies in Singapore find digital transformation inevitable. Keeping up with the constant deluge of market changes and customer demands requires them to embrace concepts like DevOps to launch new products, features, and services more effectively. 

DevOps paves the way for fast-paced development and better time-to-market. An improved partnership between development and operations teams improves software performance with lower investments. DevOps also promotes a collaborative work culture through the adoption of automation, innovative tools, and best practices.

But DevOps implementation in the highly competitive and regulated BFSI industry is easier said than done.

• Concerns over data security and privacy often restrict BFSI companies from being open to the idea of storing critical information in the cloud or third-party data centers.  
• The presence of legacy and mainframe applications makes DevOps adoption a slow and tedious process. 
• The “fail fast” culture of DevOps is not a principle BFSI companies want to adopt, given the impact of the slightest downtime and the overall cost of failure. 
• Introducing new features and updates while fulfilling evolving compliance demands impacts the entire product development lifecycle, right from requirements gathering to design, testing, and operations. 
• With new cyber threats emerging every single day, banking applications are extremely vulnerable to attacks since they are accessible over the web and mobile.

Top Tips to Streamline Software Delivery and Operations

If you want to overcome the many DevOps implementation challenges and streamline software delivery and operations, here are some tips to embrace: 

• Opt for DevOps Consultancy

If you want to take the right step forward, you must opt for DevOps consultancy services from an experienced partner. This way, you can have a detailed understanding of your existing IT architecture and also have a comprehensive DevOps roadmap created. This roadmap will help in preparing a futuristic operational architecture for your organization as well as specify the DevOps tools needed for successful implementation. 

• Enable Local Data Residency

One of the biggest concerns BFSI companies have in implementing DevOps (or any technology for that matter) is data privacy. With data residency, you can have control over where your data is hosted. You can choose to store it globally or locally in a defined geographic location. Atlassian’s Singapore data residency, for instance, allows you to store Jira or Confluence data in a location of your choice, thus allowing you to meet necessary data management requirements.

• Ensure Continuous Testing

Another best practice BFSI companies must embrace while embarking on the DevOps journey is to ensure continuous testing. Using advanced testing tools and technologies, you will be able to detect even the minutest possibilities of a glitch. Close monitoring of your DevOps operations can help identify any potential errors before they become a major hurdle in bringing your DevOps vision to life. 

• Embrace DevSecOps

Another best practice BFSI companies must embrace is DevSecOps. Given the rate of cybersecurity incidents, DevSecOps allows for the secure release of new features and changes. By shifting security left, companies can curtail go-to-market roadblocks, accelerate updates, and strengthen code quality. DevSecOps also allows for incredible deployment velocity with zero downtime, cloud readiness, and comprehensive security and compliance management. 

• Act on Feedback

If you want to streamline software delivery and operations using DevOps, you must establish a culture of continuous feedback. Evaluating each release in detail and generating reports is a great way to improve future releases. By gathering continuous feedback, you can enhance your processes and incorporate customer feedback to improve experience and satisfaction. 

So, How Should BFSI Companies in Singapore Proceed?

Singapore is home to many banking giants and offers central access to several regional markets. With the banking industry playing a key role in the country’s economy, companies must leverage the capabilities of modern technologies to fuel transformation. 

DevOps offers several benefits to BFSI companies to improve code quality, accelerate software delivery, and ensure timely releases of new features and updates. But given the many challenges BFSI companies face in bringing their DevOps vision to life, it makes sense to embrace certain best practices to overcome these roadblocks. 

Opting for DevOps consulting, enabling local data residency, ensuring continuous testing, implementing DevSecOps, and building a culture of continuous testing are some compelling ways to get maximum returns on your DevOps investment. 

As a leading DevOps and ALM expert in the Asia Pacific region, enreap offers a comprehensive suite of DevOps Consulting and Implementation Services. Explore our services or reach out to us to learn more.