Experience Sharing on Cathay Life's Cloud Migration



A seminar titled "Experience Sharing on Cathay Life's Cloud Migration" successfully concluded on the afternoon of May 25, 2024, at the Institute of Information Management, National Central University. The seminar featured presentations by Su Shu-hsuan, Chief Enterprise Architect; Yeh Jing-dong, Senior Architect; Huang Shu-ting, Architect; and Chen Yi-hsin, Specialist, from the Digital Data and Technology Development Center of Cathay Financial Holdings. The four speakers provided valuable insights into Cathay Life's cloud transformation process, offering rich and enlightening content that left the students thoroughly engaged.

Specialist Chen Yi-hsin opened the seminar with a basic introduction to cloud technology, helping students without prior background understand cloud computing and the current industry development status. He highlighted that cloud technology has become a key tool for modern businesses to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness. Cloud migration represents environmental virtualization, allowing different operating systems to share the same resources, thereby achieving greater efficiency from an economic scale perspective. Chief Enterprise Architect Su Shu-hsuan added that compared to traditional deployment methods, cloud migration allows for more agile, flexible, and rapid global deployment to meet dynamic market demands.

Next, Senior Architect Yeh Jing-dong took over to share the detailed planning of Cathay Life's cloud migration. He explained that leading the cloud migration for both the financial holding company and its subsidiaries was intended to establish a unified cloud development strategy for the group. Prior to migration, the team conducts thorough needs analysis and risk assessment, a complex and highly detailed process. By last year, Cathay Group had already migrated nearly 50 systems to the cloud, with a goal to reach 100 by 2025. Senior Architect Yeh emphasized that cloud migration is not an instant process and requires collaboration across departments, advancing step by step. When asked if they had encountered any systems that couldn’t be migrated, he confidently responded, "In our team, there are no systems that cannot be migrated to the cloud, only different challenges to overcome," showcasing the strength of Cathay Life’s cloud planning team.

In the exciting phase of the seminar, Architect Huang Shu-ting shared potential challenges and insights from practical cloud migration operations. She mentioned that all the speakers were project managers at Cathay Financial Holdings and shared a common belief that the key factor for successful transformation is the "people's" mindset. Addressing staff doubts and needs became one of the critical issues for the success of cloud migration. To this end, Cathay encourages internal staff to undergo relevant training and provides technical support to ensure the smooth implementation of projects.

Besides internal factors, the greatest risk encountered during last year's cloud migration project came from external regulatory adjustments. Therefore, flexible scheduling and strengthening internal management methods to comply with external regulations were significant tests for the team and project managers. Thanks to the team's unified goals and the efforts of all project members, the migration was successfully completed on schedule. Finally, Architect Huang mentioned that to optimize cloud benefits, Cathay would focus on cloud financial governance (FinOps) this year, aiming to achieve the maximum value in the cloud environment by optimizing cloud resource costs and performance.

The two-hour seminar concluded, and many students expressed that the session deepened their understanding of cloud technology and its applications in the financial industry. One student remarked, "For working professionals, today's seminar was very helpful for future digital transformation in our company. The speakers were thorough and generous in sharing their knowledge, and we gained a lot from this brief presentation."

The seminar not only enhanced students' understanding of cloud technology but also promoted collaboration between the university and industry. Cathay Financial Holdings stated that they will continue to hold similar events in the future, sharing practical experiences with more academic institutions and students to drive technological innovation and talent development.




Figure 1: Professor Hsu Wen-chin from the Department of Information Management, National Central University, introduces the Cathay Financial Holdings speakers.

 

Figure 2: Chief Enterprise Architect Su Shu-hsuan from the Digital Data and Technology Development Center, Cathay Financial Holdings, opens the seminar.

 

Figure 3: Senior Architect Yeh Jing-dong from the Digital Data and Technology Development Center, Cathay Financial Holdings, responds to student questions.

 

Figure 4: Architect Huang Shu-ting from the Digital Data and Technology Development Center, Cathay Financial Holdings, shares experiences.

 

Figure 5: Specialist Chen Yi-hsin from the Digital Data and Technology Development Center, Cathay Financial Holdings, shares experiences.

  

Figure 6: Group photo.

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