Microsoft Azure looks to make cloud-native payments SWIFTer Microsoft and money-message flinger SWIFT have announced a proof of concept aimed at demonstrating that Azure could be a good fit for the financial network's infrastructure. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is geared up to allow financial institutions to exchange or receive information on …
It doesn't matter what goes wrong, what matters is the remedy available if it does - even MS can't afford to remedy the financial damage from a loss of service or delay in transmission, let alone the reputational damage to the institution(s) affected. I think an MS internal PoC is as far as it will go or maybe also a few small challenger banks with specific customer terms of service opt outs.
It's not immediately apparent what SWIFT are getting from this. Their existing system is more reliable and secure than Azure. Arnaud Boulnois says it will "eliminate operational inefficiencies" and improve "back-office operational efficiency", so I'm guessing that is Belgian for cutting staff.
Microsoft first got a foot in the door two decades ago on a non-financial project, and a second-line support nobody I had a direct line to a MS VP because they were that keen. I'd always search TechNet first to avoid annoying the poor millionaire.
Machine learning algorithms, which seem to be compulsory in any new technology, validate the instruction before sending it on to SWIFT via Microsoft's SWIFT installation in the cloud.
Let's hope they've been trained on the headline-grabbing instructions that have emanated from North Korea...
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