Banco Mercantil has completed the first phase of its migration to Google Cloud.
The Venezuelan bank, which has subsidiaries in 11 other countries globally, worked with Atos on the migration project.
According to a post from Atos, the first phase took 12 months to complete, finishing in December 2024.
Thus far, Atos has helped Banco Mercantil move more than 750 machines from its enterprise data center, based on the on-premises VMware environment, to Google Cloud using Google Cloud VMware Engine.
The cloud migration project is part of a five-year deal between Banco Mercantil and Google Cloud that will see a complete exit of its data centers and is valued at "millions of Brazilian reais." The agreement with Google was signed in August 2023.
“Since our first contact with the bank, the intention has been to align strategy and planning to the point that the institution itself was able to raise its digital maturity throughout the project and, with that, was gaining even more autonomy in this new cloud technology platform,” said Fabio Beato, director of cloud computing at Atos for South America.
The bank is now moving into the final phases of the project, which will see a further 400-500 machines moved from data centers.
“The collaboration with Atos reinforces our commitment to adopting cutting-edge technologies and ensures that our transition to the cloud is secure, scalable, and aligned with market best practices. This partnership underscores our vision for the future, prioritizing value delivery to our clients, partners, and employees,” added Ramon Oliveira, IT superintendent of Banco Mercantil.
Details about Banco Mercantil's existing data center footprint have not been shared. DCD has reached out for more information.
Google has cloud regions in São Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; and Queretaro, Mexico; the latter having launched in December 2024. The company is also building data centers in Uruguay.
Financial institutions are increasingly turning to cloud providers for their IT infrastructure. The likes of Danske Bank, The Peruvian Bank, Citigroup, The Co-operative Bank, and the United Bank for Africa all signed agreements with cloud providers in 2024.