At JPMorganChase, cultivating an innovation ecosystem starts with a multi-cloud strategy.
Celina Baquiran, a vice president on the company’s Global Technology, Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships Team, said taking a multi-cloud approach enables the organization to reap the benefits of both the private and public clouds to execute a strategy that meets its needs of scale and resiliency.
“It empowers us to really take advantage of the different services the cloud offers while also allowing us to take that best-of-breed approach,” she said.
Leveraging the public cloud offers many benefits to JPMorganChase technologists. According to Sara Chen, client solutions architect manager on the company’s Runtime Compute developer relations team, one such benefit is the ability to experiment with cutting-edge technologies.
“We can dive into the latest technologies, like machine-learning models or quantum computing research, without having to invest in specialized hardware or build out entire engineering teams right off the bat,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chen noted, the private cloud also has benefits.
“We maintain our own infrastructure because there are just some things that we are able to do ourselves that can better support our clients and business needs,” she added.
What also makes working at JPMorganChase unique? The scale of impact you can make as a technologist.
“This comes from having our own platform engineering teams with specialized skills to serve other application development teams across the firm. Hardware-sharing in an on-prem environment, which is required by certain regulations, allows for better utilization of hardware and no idle resources,” Chen said.
These benefits, although just a few among many, reflect why JPMorganChase has embraced a multi-cloud strategy — and how it has heightened the company’s impact. Bolstered by internal and external collaboration, this approach ties into an overarching global tech strategy that puts the organization at the heart of the world’s innovation ecosystem.
The Groundwork
Baquiran believes that a strategy is only as good as the teams upholding it. That’s why JPMorganChase is intentional about who carries out its multi-cloud strategy.
“There is strong collaboration across various teams in the firm, like cybersecurity, architecture and engineering. But what is equally as important is strong partnership with our cloud partners so that we are able to design, architect and build together,” Baquiran said, adding that their partnerships allow them to jointly innovate and push the envelope on the art of the possible with respect to the cloud.
“Having alignment across the organization and really establishing internal partnerships with various teams has been critical to making this all work.”
“Multi-cloud is our strategy but public cloud remains a large priority for us and we are increasing our commitment to that,” she said.
Insight goes both ways at JPMorganChase, as the firm’s technologists benefit from outside guidance about the best strategies to take — and not take — and how to reach business goals as effectively as possible. And at the same time, Baquiran noted, the company’s cloud-native experts lend their own expertise when it comes to gauging the future of the industry and the impact certain technologies will have on it.
“It’s really healthy to have that relationship with the vendor ecosystem. We are all focused on delivering modern software and solutions,” Baquiran said.
‘A Learning Journey’
A multi-cloud strategy isn’t just about application hosting; it also allows JPMorganChase to embrace transformative tools like Gen AI and to innovate with services and capabilities.
“It allows us to experiment with some of the things that are available there before we decide to go all in on something, and then it opens up a world of possibilities of what we can do with the data that we have underneath it,” she said.
Chen added that having access to different services and technologies across both the public and private cloud allows the organization to respond to market changes and customer demands more quickly. It also allows developers to focus on building out features instead of worrying about the platform they’re running their applications on.
With the acceleration of its multi-cloud strategy, Chen explained, the company has also enhanced its engineering culture, building a “Community of Practice” around the cloud, which allows for technologists to share their learnings and passion for technology with one another. Having access to both the private and public cloud makes it easier for engineers to adopt a wide range of tools, which ultimately enhances the developer experience and subsequently, the work produced.
JPMorganChase’s multi-cloud strategy is a catalyst for growth, enabling technologists to continuously learn from each other without having to rely solely on outside resources to improve their technical acumen. The firm not only provides internal training materials and opportunities, but also works with vendors to organize training days, and supports employees in achieving cloud certifications.
The firm is serious about actively working to improve the developer experience, taking on learnings from the rest of the industry and adopting various modern software engineering practices. As its team members grow, Baquiran shared, the organization as a whole gains new perspectives on how to reach its goals as effectively as possible.
“Our cloud journey has consistently been a learning journey,” she said.
Endless Opportunities to Learn
JPMorganChase’s technologists have endless opportunities to share knowledge with each other. Chen said one such example is the organization’s Ignite program, which is a grassroots initiative that enables team members to engage in communities of practice dedicated to specific tech focus areas, such as Cloud, AI or DevOps. Those involved in these communities can participate in events such as Ignite 24, which is an all-day event where groups host meetups across the globe to share insights and connect with each other.
In addition to events such as these and hackathons, Chen noted, the company also offers its annual DEVUP conference, which brings together the firm’s top technologists from around the world to learn from each other for a week in Plano, Texas. “You don’t really get that with a lot of other financial institutions,” she said. “This really goes to show just how much JPMorganChase values technology.”
A Community Composed of Passion and Talent
JPMorganChase’s uniquely talented and passionate community of technologists became apparent to Baquiran when she joined the company’s analyst development program as an intern, which she stepped into without a technical background. Soon enough, she shared, she fell in love with infrastructure and engineering, which ultimately gave way to a fulfilling career at the organization — and an unwavering admiration for its people.
“I think that’s also a testament to the community of technologists that we have here,” Baquiran said. “Everyone is so willing to teach you in a way that makes sense, and the community itself is just so collaborative that it makes you want to learn about technology and dive in.”
“Everyone is so willing to teach you in a way that makes sense, and the community itself is just so collaborative that it makes you want to learn about technology and dive in.”
She believes that JPMorganChase fosters a workplace in which passion meets talent, inspiring everyone to continue to push the boundaries alongside others who are equally motivated to do more.
“Learning never really stops,” Baquiran said. “It's really exciting that you can never get too comfortable, because there’s always something new out there, and we’re always looking for it.”
With this supportive network comes countless opportunities for technologists to build robust skill sets that can carry them far in their careers. For Chen, this “immense amount of personal growth” is one of the main reasons why she loves working on her team.
Due to the sheer size of the firm’s technological footprint, she and her teammates have access to unique challenges.
Chen and her teammates help the company’s engineers solve obscure technical issues while providing them with the insight needed to engineer more effectively and understand their work more fully — all of which gives way to a dynamic career filled with continuous growth.
“For me, every single day is different,” Chen said. “Every day, you get a different challenge coming to you, and every time you help someone resolve an issue, it’s really fulfilling.”
According to Baquiran, JPMorganChase is guided by the belief that everyone has a right to understand technology and its nuances. Leaning on its multi-cloud strategy, technologists get to explore every facet of the tech industry, enabling them to fuel the technological engine that drives the organization’s success.
“We pride ourselves on being one of the best banks in the world, but that’s only possible if we have the best technology out there to support us,” Baquiran said.
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