Safaricom Enhances Mobile Banking Platform with Red Hat
Kenyan telecommunications provider Safaricom has deployed Red Hat OpenShift as its cloud platform to power applications including the M-PESA mobile payment system, according to an announcement at Mobile World Congress.
Safaricom provides service to over 45 million subscribers throughout Kenya's mobile network and manages M-PESA, a mobile banking platform that processes more than US$314bn in yearly transactions for 51 million customers across Africa.
This platform delivers financial services to communities with limited access to conventional banking infrastructure.
Addressing Stability Through Cloud Migration
The telecom company recognised the need to shift from monolithic infrastructure to a cloud-native architecture utilising containers and microservices to support its digital transformation initiatives.
Containers enable applications to function consistently across various computing environments by packaging software with all necessary dependencies.
"Customer experience is paramount for us and with Red Hat's platforms and support teams we have been able to gain performance improvements across our entire IT infrastructure"
Initially, Safaricom implemented open-source Kubernetes to orchestrate containerised applications but encountered stability challenges.
The company subsequently transitioned to Red Hat OpenShift, an enterprise Kubernetes platform featuring enhanced security, management capabilities, and support services.
"Customer experience is paramount for us and with Red Hat's platforms and support teams we have been able to gain performance improvements across our entire IT infrastructure," says Duncan Kabira Ndirangu, Head of IT infrastructure at Safaricom.
The implementation was conducted in partnership with Copy Cat Group, a systems integrator, alongside Red Hat's technical specialists.
The project included aligning processes across security, application development, and platform teams through workshops centred on DevOps methodologies, which integrate software development and IT operations practices.
In 2024, Safaricom expanded its deployment to include Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus, incorporating additional cybersecurity features through Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security and centralised management via Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes.
Significant Performance Improvements
Red Hat OpenShift now serves as the core container platform in Safaricom's IT environment, supporting approximately 70% of its critical applications.
The company is transitioning much of its infrastructure to run Red Hat OpenShift on bare-metal servers rather than virtualised environments to increase control and cost efficiency.
- System availability has increased from 93% to 99.98%
- Solution deployment time has been reduced by half
- The Hustler Fund, a digital financial inclusion initiative, was developed and launched within one month
- Automated processes have reduced cluster deployment time from two days to two hours
- The platform enables Safaricom to adapt to traffic fluctuations by scaling applications based on demand patterns
"Safaricom has high requirements around agility, stability and scale-out design to support its business-critical applications where performance directly impacts customers, including millions of users reliant on M-PESA banking services," says Fran Heeran, Vice President of Global Telecommunications at Red Hat.
Safaricom is now exploring opportunities to extend these capabilities into its network infrastructure, including its 5G core, and is developing a proof-of-concept before scaling the deployment.
"Red Hat has been a pivotal partner in Safaricom's journey from a traditional telecommunications company to a technology-driven organisation," says James Maitai, Chief Technology Information Officer at Safaricom.
"Through its innovative solutions and open source expertise, Red Hat has enabled us to enhance our internal efficiencies, streamline operations and accelerate our digital transformation."
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