A digital revolution is taking place in the payments space. Banks and financial institutions are investing in digital capabilities to meet the demand for faster, more streamlined and efficient transaction options. And the pace of innovation across the financial services technology industry is making it an exciting sector for software engineers to work in.
Mark Edwards, director of digital payments at Discover Financial Services, a leading digital bank in the US, describes how innovation around payments is being driven by the cloud, API (application programming interface) platforms and other digital solutions. The company, which has an office in Farnborough where much of the payment technology development takes place, recently made the transition from virtual machine-based payment applications to the cloud via the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP).
“Moving from virtual machines on physical infrastructure to OCP has transformed our operations, and given us greater flexibility – the platform allows us to develop, deploy and manage applications consistently across hybrid and cloud environments, as well as our physical data centres,” says Mark. “It has increased our competitiveness and our ability to innovate, and created a workplace that helps us to attract and retain the talent we need.”
Mark has spent his entire career in payments, including 17 years at Barclaycard. In 2019, he joined Discover, overseeing the development of systems for digitising cards, making payments via Apple or Google phones, and ensuring the additional security demanded by an increasingly digital payment space.
One of the biggest benefits of transitioning to OCP has been a faster speed to market, thanks to a more efficient release and distribution, the distribution of the newest or final version of a software application. “We’ve always been very good at the automation side of the process. Before OCP, we had a single release environment that our engineering teams had to share, which slowed things down. With OCP, our product team of six engineers can release independently,” says Mark.
The company’s ability to partner with digital players in the space, such as Apple, Google and Amazon, has also been significantly improved. “They have a vision, they are agile, and they move quickly,” says Mark. “And you can’t partner with them as effectively if you have a six-month release timescale. OCP gives us a level of agility that matches theirs and allows us to work in step with them.”
Moving to the cloud has also boosted innovation for the company. “One of the advantages of a faster speed to market is that you can show somebody a new product in a couple of weeks rather than six months, which increases their risk appetite,” he says. “That allows us to be braver and therefore more innovative.”
The increased flexibility and agility and moving to a product-centric organisational structure have had a positive impact on the workforce, empowering the engineering teams and giving them a sense of ownership of the products they are working on. Competition for software engineering talent is fierce, and Discover’s new tech stack is helping it to not only attract but also retain the talent it needs.
“You can’t risk losing people by bringing in new people who get to do all the exciting stuff; we need to take everybody on this journey,” says Mark. “We have some fantastic engineers who’ve been with us 10 years or more and had never touched OCP, so it was imperative to provide everyone with the right training and support, and the headspace to get to grips with it.”
Every member of the team had eight weeks of immersive training, not just on OCP, but on applying the new system to their work, and firmly embedding it into the company culture.
However, Mark says, there are lessons to be learned when making the move from legacy systems to cloud systems, not least the importance of paying full attention to operational readiness. “Coding something in the cloud requires a different way of thinking compared with working with physical infrastructure.
“With physical infrastructure, the chance of the machine your application runs on blowing up is incredibly unlikely. However, the cloud can literally just drop out, so you need a different mindset and more robust ways of dealing with everything,” he says.
Mark admits to having spent most of his career envisaging a digital payment world of fully empowered teams, modern tech stacks driving engineering excellence, and fast product release at the touch of a button. In the slower legacy world of finance, that vision seemed like a fantasy. But not any more.
“Where we are now with digital payments at Discover is very, very close to making that vision a reality,” he says. “That’s why I’m so passionate about this business and the future of this industry.”
Find out more about the job opportunities and career progression offered by Discover Financial Services
