Invested in Samlink’s Cloud Solutions
My journey with Samlink began with various interactions over the last few years. Being part of the Kyndryl team involved in the Samlink acquisition allowed me to gain deeper insight into this company. I was impressed by the scale of knowledge and the importance of Samlink’s work. The acquisition has allowed us to resolve customer pain points while also securing a bright future for Samlink. This was one of the most rewarding activities I’ve been involved in during my career and the experience made me personally invested in Samlink.
The last three years have been turbulent due to Covid-19 and the recent geopolitical situation. The pandemic led to a new way of working, forcing many to adopt cloud-based collaboration solutions for example. This also prompted companies to rethink their overall Cloud strategy or create one where none existed. The geopolitical turbulence has also brought the need for additional resiliency options and leveraging cloud solutions outside of Finnish borders can support that. Of course, the impact of recent DORA legislation is also on the top of everyone’s mind, and we at Samlink are constantly evolving to offer heightened resiliency and future-proof solutions.
We are constantly seeking to grow our business and gain new customers – and leveraging cloud is simply an expectation that customers have. It’s about being relevant in the marketplace and to our customer base, both new and old. To paraphrase Linh Kuivanen, our CTO, who recently stated: “The growth of the financial sector is made with the help of IT technologies, and that is why Samlink’s future is built on cloud technologies.” So, we are building an organization who can enable and support this growth at Samlink.
Samlink and Kyndryl are vendor agnostic, but Microsoft Azure is our strategic environment of choice. We have adopted West and North Europe as our strategic locations due to the best catalogue of available Azure services and cloud native options they offer. Also, utilizing cloud locations outside of Finland provides greater options for resiliency and disaster recovery while still adhering to European data residency requirements. Additionally, Microsoft’s plans to establish an Azure region in Finland by 2026 have influenced our decision-making, and we want to be best placed to leverage that option when it occurs.
Throughout my career, I have focused on strategic outsourcing, working with customers in delivery roles and leading teams of solution architects and specialists. My primary goal has always been finding solutions to address customers’ business challenges, putting their needs first. This approach aligns with the Samlink strategy of Stellar Customer Experience. While I have been fortunate to work with many great customers in the Nordics, extensive travel made it difficult for me to feel fully integrated into local markets and economies. Now, it’s time to work with a portfolio of great Finnish customers and put away my suitcase for a while.
Alan Rushe
Director, Cloud Services
Alan Rushe’s top 3 priorities concerning the Cloud Business Unit
- Developing our Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) is a key priority. This means retaining our amazing current staff by offering development opportunities and also attracting new talent who expect to work in cloud-based environments. It is also one of the things that enables Samlink to be an employer of choice.
- The Cloud BU is focused on driving growth for Samlink and gaining new customers at speed. Strategic partnerships such as Aura Cloud have been established to provide unique cloud-based financial solutions.
- We aim to be relevant in the cloud space for customers by showcasing our capabilities and becoming the go-to choice for cloud-related challenges and choices.
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