Bank Leumi is Israel’s leading and longest-running bank, providing a wide range of financial services to private individuals, businesses, and institutions, including banking, investment, and asset management services. The bank has a strong national presence, with over 200 branches across Israel, as well as operations in several international markets. Bank Leumi is renowned for its advanced technological capabilities and innovative financial products and services, and is consistently ranked among the top financial institutions in Israel. In 2022, Bank Leumi was named “Bank of the Year in Israel” by The Banker magazine.
Bank Leumi, Israel’s leading bank, comprises of multiple business units and a complex infrastructure of EKS containers.
The bank is defining its own EKS deployment needs and requirements and created the first IaC towards this goal while considering the proper way of standardizing its EKS cluster deployments for 100% of its deployments.
At the recommendation of AllCloud, Bank Leumi adopted the EKS solution from the AllCloud Solutions Factory, a consistent blueprint-based method for fast, seamless deployment of Kubernetes-based containerized applications in the cloud, supporting a centralized and synchronized process across the bank’s departments. Following a highly successful initial deployment, Bank Leumi is continuing the implementation of the EKS solution across the organization, with the expert support of the AllCloud team.
When Bank Leumi first migrated to AWS, Amazon EKS was chosen for its microservices platforms, and its clear strategy was automation. To meet this strategy, Bank Leumi began experimenting with private EKS clusters and deploying configurations with numerous dependencies. The need for automation processes, supporting them, and making sure it meets every demand, became clear. However, the automation that was built manually had to be continually improved, and there were many aspects that had to be configured and optimized after going live.
In addition, Bank Leumi has one Business Logic Cluster that will host almost all the departments of the bank. That is what makes the architecture of Bank Leumi so unique. Bank Leumi began working on an EKS solution and defining its standards, requirements of security, and operations. Because there was no synchronization of EKS containerization, it was cumbersome and difficult to maintain and update EKS clusters in a timely and efficient manner.
As part of the Solutions Factory, AllCloud offers the EKS-based Environment-as-a-Service blueprint, an automated, standardized method for deploying and managing containerized applications in Kubernetes. The cloud admin defines how the cluster should look, while the automated solution does all the work in the background, shortening development time and enabling a centralized, streamlined process. The AllCloud team recommended to Bank Leumi to deploy the EKS solution and benefit from the ready-made set of infrastructure and automation components in their environment.
The implementation of the EKS solution began with deployment in an introductory environment to test its viability in several bank applications. Developers of the bank were accessing the system, and following the success of the deployment, the bank moved to the production stage, with the aim of implementing AllCloud’s EKS solutions.
Maintenance is also made far easier with AllCloud. With just a few clicks from the Service Catalog, the bank can upgrade the EKS in their dev or prod environment to the latest version, and gain access to security patches and new plugins and features in minutes.
The EKS blueprint solution was implemented at Bank Leumi, supporting cloud-based core services that demand a microservice topology. The project was a true partnership between Bank Leumi and AllCloud. The teams worked cooperatively to improve and add feature requirements to the product and to also deploy the EKS solution in a live environment and see it go into production, optimizing and realizing its real-world potential in real-time.
The AllCloud solution is installed in one click via the convenient cloud-based Service Catalog, providing Bank Leumi with a fast, simple way to deploy and manage EKS clusters across the organization, with all the add-ons and controllers for their automation needs. The EKS solution is based on best practices.
The deep cooperation between AllCloud and Bank Leumi has paved the way for an exceptional partnership, leveraging the expertise of both entities to drive innovation and enhance the efficiency of Bank Leumi’s operations. By forming a comprehensive Center of Excellence (CCoE) team, comprised of seasoned professionals from both organizations, a collaborative and synergistic environment was fostered.
What sets this partnership apart is the commitment to continuous improvement. The joint effort between Bank Leumi and AllCloud experts goes beyond the initial development of the EKS Blueprint solution. Instead, it extends to an ongoing process of refining and updating the product, ensuring that it remains aligned with the bank’s evolving requirements and incorporating the latest best practices derived from real-world applications and results.
This iterative approach guarantees that Bank Leumi benefits from the most cutting-edge technologies and methodologies available, keeping them at the forefront of innovation in the financial sector.
From the introductory deployment to live production, Bank Leumi has come to rely on AllCloud’s delivery of consistent and high-quality professional services. In the Israeli banking industry, Bank Leumi is a leading enterprise in the cloud, and with AllCloud’s help, EKS has become a real engine of business. AllCloud will continue to raise the bar for Amazon EKS and collaborate with Bank Leumi to take EKS cluster management and maintenance to the next level.
“AllCloud’s EKS blueprint for cluster deployment includes all the surrounding components at the click of a button. As a result, the delivery of the EKS solution is fast, with no manual interference in the infrastructural layer. The cluster is ready for application deployment, and all clusters are managed centrally and efficiently. This has been a game changer for Kubernetes management and maintenance, and we look forward to working with AllCloud to boost our EKS efficiency even further.” – Elad Palombo, Cloud Solution Engineer, Bank Leumi