How do you see the role of the financial industry in the ecological transition?
The regulation of sustainable IT is still in its early stages, but customer demand is growing rapidly. Banks—both clients and prospects—are starting to factor in ecological impact and expect their providers to do the same. While it’s not yet a deal-breaker in sales, this trend is moving in the right direction. In the future, criteria like server location and energy efficiency will significantly influence business decisions. Sustainable IT is becoming a crucial issue, not only for providers but also for end customers, making it essential for all stakeholders to understand the environmental impact of the sector.
What role does the SBS Cloud Platform play in the digital and sustainable transformation of banks?
The SBS Cloud Platform (SBCP) enables the development of cloud-native banking applications delivered in a SaaS model. Its goal is to free our clients from integration and hosting constraints. This technical foundation is at the core of SBS’s new offerings and is becoming central to the solutions we provide.
In the banking sector, handling sensitive data can slow down SaaS adoption, but the shift to the cloud is inevitable. This is where sustainable IT takes on real significance. It’s now crucial to develop cloud applications that optimize resources and minimize environmental impact. By integrating a dedicated framework for cloud-native applications, we contribute to the eco-design of our solutions, ensuring a measurable ecological impact throughout the platform’s lifecycle.
You wear many hats within the SBCP project. Can you tell us more about your roles?
Within SBCP, I serve as the Project Security Leader (PSL), coordinating the security aspects of the platform’s applications and services. I’m also involved in release management and act as a managerial point of contact for our French office, particularly in Annecy. Additionally, I am the Green IT ambassador for the SBCP project, driving initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of our activities.
What does being a Green IT ambassador entail?
My role starts with raising awareness among colleagues, whether within my project team or across SBS as a whole. This includes promoting training sessions and sharing relevant articles and information on our internal channels to keep the topic front and center.
Beyond awareness, I support practical initiatives. For instance, we launched a challenge to reduce the size of project SharePoint folders, which resulted in halving our storage usage and saving 80GB of space in just a few hours.
Finally, I strive to highlight and track team-led initiatives, such as developing tools or processes that minimize the ecological impact of our platform. Every small step counts, and the goal is to embed these practices into our daily operations.
Can you share a concrete example of an initiative contributing to sustainability?
A great example is the work of Jérôme Vanderstichelen, who is optimizing the resources used by our CI/CD pipelines. If successful, this initiative could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of these pipelines, which are utilized by hundreds of developers across numerous SBS projects to build cloud-native solutions. This type of action has a high-impact potential, driving meaningful change within the organization.
Note: CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) pipelines are automated processes in software development that enhance the quality, speed, and efficiency of code delivery.
What challenges do you face in your mission?
The biggest challenge is balancing sustainability with performance and security requirements. In the banking sector, security always takes precedence, which can sometimes conflict with responsible IT practices. The key is to find a balance—proposing optimizations that meet our high standards while encouraging teams to integrate these considerations into the design phase of solutions.
What has been the most significant lesson of your career so far?
The most eye-opening realization has been the environmental impact of the digital world. Working in this field made me fully grasp the urgency of taking action. It was a turning point for both my professional journey and my global outlook, driving me to become a Green IT ambassador.
How has this awareness changed your daily life?
I’ve always been a tech enthusiast, fascinated by innovations in everything from gadgets to automotive technology. But since becoming aware of the environmental impact, I’ve adopted a more thoughtful approach to technology use. I take great care of my devices to extend their lifespan and reduce the ecological footprint of manufacturing. However, I also prioritize security and replace devices when they become obsolete and no longer safe to use. Additionally, I encourage those around me to adopt more sustainable habits.
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