1. Microsoft Customer SolutionCustomer & Partner Solution Brief00Fiserv Evaluates Cloud Technologies as It Enhances Key Financial Services Offerings“We’re always looking for better, faster, more cost-effective ways to provide services to our customers. Our interest in Windows Azure is based on the flexibility, scalability, and cost benefits it could offer.” Rick McMichael, Vice President of Strategic Architecture and Technology, Fiserv<br />This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published July 2010Fast FactsCustomer: FiservWebsite: www.fiserv.com Number of Employees: 20,000Country or Region: United States Industry: Financial services Partner: Sogeti Website: www.sogeti.com Customer ProfileFiserv is ranked No. 1 on the 2009 FinTech 100 list and is a Fortune 500 company. The firm is a global provider of technology solutions to the financial services industry.Software and ServicesWindows Azure PlatformWindows AzureMicrosoft SQL AzureWindows Azure platform AppFabricSituation<br />As a solution provider to more than 16,000 clients worldwide, Fiserv continually strives to enhance its solutions—a broad range of financial services technologies, including digital payment services. As part of that ongoing effort, Fiserv is investigating the latest cloud-based technologies to cost-effectively scale existing financial offerings and deploy new ones even more rapidly. <br />Solution<br />Fiserv is working with IT partner Sogeti to explore the feasibility of migrating applications and services from traditional systems to the Windows Azure platform. McMichael says, “We have a heavy investment in Microsoft technologies, and have found them to be a good fit for financial services, which naturally sparks our interest in Windows Azure.”<br />The companies conducted an initial proof of concept (POC) as a test of the Windows Azure environment: “The ease with which we were able to adapt and integrate our digital payment technology, including mainframe-based services, to Windows Azure was a surprise,” says McMichael. Fiserv also conducted high-level tests of Microsoft SQL Azure and Windows Azure platform AppFabric. McMichael considers the tests a success: “The POC shows we could easily design applications so that we could deploy them in our own infrastructure, in Windows Azure, or take a hybrid approach.” <br />Benefits<br />Fiserv POC tests verify that deploying its digital payment software using Windows Azure would require only minimal changes to current code and IT practices.<br />Fiserv predicts the company could lower operational costs by moving key applications and services to Windows Azure. <br />McMichael says, “The ability of Windows Azure to define standard environments for key applications, and then dynamically create new instances of these environments, could speed application deployment and contribute to business agility.”<br />