Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - How Global Payments scales on AWS with governance and controls (COP303)

Summary

Vishal Sharma, a business development specialist at AWS, introduces the session on how Global Payments scales on AWS with governance and controls.
Nihar Das, a Solution Architect at AWS, and Krishan Kothapali, Senior Director of Cloud Operations at Global Payments, present their experiences and strategies.
The session covers the challenges faced by regulated industries like financial services, including changing regulatory requirements, security threats, scarcity of specialists, and documentation requirements.
Global Payments' cloud journey involves modernizing monolithic applications to a microservice architecture on AWS, using Terraform for infrastructure as code.
AWS Organizations and Service Catalog are highlighted as key services used by Global Payments to manage their complex account structure and to enforce compliance and governance.
Krishan Kothapali discusses the importance of a uniform control plane, the use of Terraform, and the product-based approach to infrastructure.
The session concludes with a summary of key takeaways, including the importance of having a clear vision, standardizing on technologies, using AWS services effectively, and building governed products for scalability and flexibility.

Global Payments has a significant global presence, processing a vast number of transactions, which necessitates a robust, scalable, and compliant cloud infrastructure.
The company's approach to cloud infrastructure is product-centric, treating each component as a unit with its own lifecycle, features, and governance.
AWS Organizations is crucial for Global Payments to manage multiple accounts and regions, enforce security policies, and optimize costs.
AWS Service Catalog is used to manage the lifecycle of cloud resources, allowing for standardized deployment and governance across the organization.
The use of Terraform and Kubernetes indicates a preference for infrastructure as code and container orchestration, which are key to Global Payments' modernization efforts.
The session underscores the importance of balancing agility and governance in the cloud, especially for regulated industries that must adhere to strict compliance standards.
The approach taken by Global Payments can serve as a model for other organizations in similar industries looking to scale their cloud infrastructure while maintaining strict governance and control.