Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the winners of the Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards 2021 for Thailand. Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL) and KTB Computer Services (KTBCS) were honored at the Red Hat APAC Forum Virtual Experience today for their digital transformation journey and innovations using Red Hat solutions.
Open source continues to be an innovation engine for Asia Pacific enterprises by helping them modernize infrastructures, develop applications and transform digitally. According to Red Hat’s recent State of Enterprise Open Source report, 92 percent of the region’s IT leaders are using enterprise open source today, exceeding the global average of 90 percent.
With the theme of “Open Your Perspective,” the Red Hat APAC Forum Virtual Experience encourages organizations to build resilience, achieve their transformation goals and propel their business forward with open source. This year, the Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards recognized the technological achievements of 24 organizations in the region for their creative thinking, determined problem solving and innovative use of Red Hat solutions.
The winners were selected based on the impact of their Red Hat deployments to support business goals and company culture, industry, communities, as well as the uniqueness of vision for the project. They displayed how open source tools and culture have helped them to improve productivity, agility and cost savings while empowering them to address future challenges and emerging trends more confidently and effectively.
Winners were recognized in five categories: digital transformation, hybrid cloud infrastructure, cloud-native development, automation and resilience.
Category: Cloud-native DevelopmentWinner: Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL)
Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL) is the fifth largest bank in Thailand in terms of assets, loans, and deposits and one of Thailand’s six Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) with over 76 years of history in the country. Krungsri is a strategic member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan’s largest financial group and one of the world’s largest financial organizations.
To reinforce its leadership in Thailand’s digital banking market under the medium-term business plan covering 2021-2023, Krungsri wanted to improve, innovate and enhance its customer experience by taking its digital transformation journey to the next level. As part of its digitalization program, Krungsri worked to create a robust, secure and easy-to-connect system to drive its overall partner ecosystem growth. The bank had to move beyond its legacy applications to containerized applications using a microservices architecture. To achieve success, Krungsri required a mature platform with best practises for a smooth journey to containerization.
Krungsri collaborated with Red Hat and IBM GBS to create an open banking API platform to power a unique API ecosystem across the region. The bank deployed Red Hat OpenShift, giving the bank the robustness and security hardening it required for zero downtime deployment. This also shortened its end-to-end product development lifecycle by 50 percent.
As a result, Krungsri can now quickly create and deliver new applications and services through the adoption of a cloud-native architecture and containerization. With a microservices platform powered by Red Hat, Krungsri is better positioned to adopt DevSecOps best practices to drive a culture of automation and transformation. It looks to further remove barriers that prohibit productivity and integration to create new user experiences.
Category: Hybrid Cloud InfrastructureWinner: KTB Computer Services Co., Ltd. (KTBCS)
KTBCS is a subsidiary of Krung Thai Bank Public Company Limited and recognized as a leading IT Service provider in the banking and public sector industries. KTBCS provides infrastructure services, leasing spaces for computer system installation and computer operation, system integration services, as well as IT consulting services.
KTBCS had to help its parent company, Krung Thai Bank (KTB), move to the cloud. In response to the Ministry of Finance’s mandate to upgrade and strengthen banks’ public service, KTB wanted to build a digital platform to improve their banking offerings to customers while maintaining control over cost. Using Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Ceph Storage, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, KTBCS helped KTB build a private cloud to host new digital applications while optimizing their return on investment.
The private cloud by KTBCS allowed KTB to accelerate the bank’s time-to-market for digital services and ensure the availability and security of digital applications. KTB has cut down development cycle time from weeks to days. Furthermore, KTB also eliminated time-consuming manual procedures, such as IT environment production and installation, saving up to 50 percent in costs and manpower on core business applications such as their global transaction application and the employee application One Krungthai. KTB’s infrastructure is also now agile enough to scale for increased workloads or future business growth requirements.
Building on this momentum, KTBCS plans to adopt this technology for future digitalized applications and government agencies workloads. With Red Hat, KTBCS is confident that it has the capabilities to build the national private cloud for Thai’s government agencies. The Cloud-native Development category showcases agile methodologies and organizations that have most successfully illustrated superior overall performance in creating, maintaining and deploying successful business applications.
Supporting Quotes
Marjet Andriesse, vice president and general manager, APAC, Red Hat”2021 continues to be a year of uncertainty, but Asia Pacific organizations are using open source technology to more rapidly and effectively create more business possibilities with digital transformation. They are using technologies like hybrid cloud, data analytics and edge computing to meet changing market landscapes and enhance customer experiences. Congratulations to this year’s winners, and we hope that Red Hat’s open source solutions will continue to help address the many real challenges our customers face today, and unlock the future for business in Asia Pacific.”
Saisunee Hanprathueangsil, head of digital innovation and data group, Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL)”Our open API platform sets the stage for creating a robust, secure and easy-to-connect system that will drive Krungsri’s partner ecosystem growth. Thanks to Red Hat’s microservices enablement, we are working to make banking simple and become an essential part of customers’ daily lives by helping them access mortgages, auto loans, life insurance or planning retirement in just a few clicks. Such a platform would help pave our way to become the most preferred Thai bank connecting customers’ needs across ASEAN. Our partners can also provide quotes, service offerings and estimates swiftly and directly to customers in the comfort of their home.”
Poosit Sapunya, senior executive vice president, KTBCS”As Thailand moves towards its 4.0 era, it’s important for banks and government agencies to step up their digital game to serve the evolving needs of the Thai public. Red Hat has enabled KTBCS to spearhead a private cloud to enhance KTB’s banking offerings and lower IT costs. Through technology innovation, the bank is better equipped to help people gain access to sources of capital funding, provide them with financial literacy and grow Thailand’s digital economy.”
Source: FAQ Co., Ltd.