Fintech: Choosing a Cloud Services Provider

Presented by MISSO Group 7

TEAM MEMBERS:

Vinh Bui
Seong Min Choi
Adolfo Gracia
Julie Hess

PROJECT SUMMARY:
This case study aimed to provide a cloud services solution to Fintech, a financial technology company
in the business of processing electronic payments for wholesale distributors and retailers of alcoholic
beverages. We examined three top cloud services providers: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
Platform and Microsoft Azure. The three companies were selected based on how well they performed
among eight critical capabilities, most important among these being batch computing and cloud-native
applications. After this initial selection, we used a weighted analysis model to select our top choice.

Project goals included finding a company that met the following criteria:
• Economic viability (including initial price, cost of ownership, consumption)
• Technical factors (Compatibility, support with current infrastructure, scalability)
• Human factors (accessibility, ease of use for clients and current IT workforce)
• Security (uptime, strong controls on data management)

BACKGROUND:
Cloud services have become ubiquitous across a spectrum of industries. The number of firms moving
or expanding their infrastructure using cloud technology only continues to rise. Through cloud
computing, companies can outsource a costly and hard to maintain IT department to experts who are
able to provide better features at a lower price. Gartner, an IT research advisory company, has listed
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in 2015 as being at the Slope of Enlightenment in their branded Hype
Cycle. Being at the Slope of Enlightenment is a time when more second and third generation products
appear, and when the technology becomes widely understood.

For this reason, more companies have started to realize the massive technological improvement, as
well as cost benefits, that a cloud based IT solution can provide. The bottom line is that the time is right
for cloud computing, and companies can use it as leverage to expand into new markets in data
analytics, as well as save money by reducing their in-house IT infrastructure. Companies are gathering
data at an all-time high, and it is the companies that use this new resource effectively that will
continue to be leaders in their markets.
METHODOLOGY:
Our team examined the three top cloud service providers that Joe Kwo’s consultant recommended. We
first gathered requirements for Fintech’s current payment processing and data analytics operation, and
used them to help determine the criteria by which we would judge the three providers. Four criteria:
cost, compatibility, accessibility, and security were ultimately chosen as categories of interest.

Internal company data was provided by Fintech to allow us to determine which technical requirements
their systems would need. Visual Studio and SQL Server Data Tools were of particular importance, as
these were the programs needed to package data in a way that the cloud services could understand.
All three providers offer viable technical solutions, although there are distinctions on cost and
accessibility for the clients.

Ultimately, a weighted analysis method was used to determine which cloud service provider to choose.
Using this model, each criteria (cost, compatibility, accessibility, security) is given a multiplier based on
how much they weigh in importance to Fintech’s overall strategy. After being assigned this multiplier,
each provider is given a score from 0 to 5 based on how well they meet the criteria. The multiplier and
score are then multiplied to calculate a total score for the category. Finally, the sum of the scores is
found, and the company with the highest points is chosen as a recommended provider.

Criteria Weighing AWS Google Microsoft

Score Total Score Total Score Total
Cost 4 4 16 3 12 1 4
Compatibility 2 2 4 2 4 4 8
Accessibility 4 4 16 3 12 3 12
Security 3 4 12 3 9 2 6

TOTAL 48 37 30

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS:

Cost:
Cost was given a high multiplier due to the “pay-as-you-go” nature of cloud services.. All three cloud
service providers will only save Fintech money if consumption of cloud data is managed correctly.
Ultimately, Amazon Web Services was deemed to be the best financial decision, with a total cost of
$1,638 a month for Fintech’s requirements. AWS was $46 cheaper than Google Cloud Platform, and
$5,663 cheaper than Microsoft Azure. Despite being less expensive per month, AWS still offered
competitive services, storage space, and computational power when compared to the more expensive
Microsoft Azure. AWS also has the added benefit of having no long-term contracts and only billing for
services used, as opposed to a flat rate. For this reason, AWS receives the highest score in this category
of a 4.
Compatibility:
Compatibility was given a relatively low multiplier of 2 because of how well rounded Kwo’s team is
technically. Kwo currently has a fully equipped IT team, with developers, data analysts, and network
experts, and so he has the resources to redevelop applications if it makes financial sense. Microsoft
Azure had the most native compatibility, offering multiple programming languages, browsers, clients,
mobile devices, and both Windows and Linux OS. For this reason, Microsoft Azure scores the highest
score of a 4.

Accessibility:
Accessibility was given the highest multiplier of 4 because it is a measure of how easy the cloud
solution is for the client to use. Forrester Wave has ranked Amazon Web Services as the leader in
Cloud Platforms for Q4 ’14 and is also very flexible, offering flexible pricing, scalability and data storage
services. For this reason, Amazon Web Services scores the highest score of a 4.

Security:
Security has been identified as a top concern for cloud computing by multiple sources, including CIO
and InformationWeek, during the year of 2016. As such, security has received a multiplier of 3. Uptime,
integrity of data, and data cloud security were top concerns for Fintech. Of the 3 top contenders,
Amazon Web Services offers the largest amount of security features, with a number slightly higher
than Google, and significantly higher than Microsoft. For this reason, AWS has received the highest
score of 4.

Recommendations for Further Action:

The time is right to explore the options for cloud computing, and certainly to begin projects that aim to
expand into the new technology. As companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google continue to
improve their cloud services and become even more cost effective, more companies will likely begin to
move larger portions of their infrastructure into the cloud.

Companies such as Phillips 66 that have a large infrastructure already in place, with many different
applications, will need to take into consideration scalability for applications. Although cloud services
offer the option to scale up or down based on demand, if consumption is high at all times it can make
cloud services an expensive choice. To mitigate this, rationalization should be done on applications, to
determine which applications are essential for business functions. Once the applications have been
selected, a cloud solution for these applications can be explored.

We believe that Phillips 66 can apply the same methodology of a weighted analysis to its own projects.
The categories of cost, compatibility, accessibility and security are fairly universal and as such they may
be kept in Phillips 66’s own instance of the methodology. More criteria, such as Ease of Use and Long-
term Scalability could be added, depending on the requirements that Phillips 66 has.

Finally, companies such as Phillips 66 should employ cloud analytics services once a cloud solution is
chosen. Cloud analytics services can demonstrate cloud usage and utilization over time, as well as the
costs that each application has. This information can be used to determine when a cloud solution stops
making financial sense, and allows the company to address an issue that may have otherwise gone
unnoticed.
Sources:
1. Froehlich. “Eight Cloud Computing Predictions for 2016.” InformationWeek 12/23/2015.
http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/infrastructure-as-a-service/8-cloud-computing-
predictions-for-2016/d/d-id/1323598?image_number=1
2. T. Olavsrud, ‘Eleven Cloud Trends that will Dominate 2016” CIO, Jan 2016.
http://cio.com/article/3026527/cloud-computing/11-cloud-trends-that-will-dominate-2016.html
3. L. Leong. “Critical Capabilities for Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Worldwide”. Gartner
Report G00270178, 26 Oct 2015. https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-
2QQX6UM&ct=151027&st=sb
4. JR Rymer and J Staten. “The Forrester WaveTM: Enterprise Public Cloud Platforms”, Q4 2014. Dec
29, 2014 https://d0.awsstatic.com/analyst-
reports/The%20Forrester%20Wave%20Enterprise%20Public%20Cloud%20Platforms,%20Q4%2020
14.pdf