A decade of Cloud Native at ING: Lessons learned, and what comes next

"Being early also means seeing the next chapter before much of the industry, especially in FSI. Like all technology, cloud native technology evolves in layers. Nothing is wrong: the platform simply grows and matures, year after year. Take the examples of Ingress Patterns, RBAC & Network policies, and so on... None of these are failures. Each was a good decision at the time."

"The compound result is what I call layered legacy: a stack that works, but becomes less flexible, less adaptable and more expensive to maintain by the day. Suddenly, thirty solid interfaces feel like thirty different products. This is what sustained success looks like: a platform that has served countless teams, currently running thousands of applications and services."

"The challenge is how to keep the platform evolving while making the developer experience simpler, safer, and faster for the engineers who build on top of it, and staying aligned with the requirements of a global organization, from compliance and risk to security and external entities like the ECB, etc."

ING developed a private cloud infrastructure over a decade using open source standards and cloud native technologies, adopting Kubernetes early with namespace-as-service consumption. The platform enabled full self-service through APIs for application teams and released internal open source projects. While successful in powering thousands of applications, the platform accumulated layered legacy—multiple interfaces and policies that, though individually sound decisions, reduced flexibility and increased maintenance costs. The challenge ahead involves evolving the platform to simplify developer experience, enhance safety and speed, and maintain alignment with organizational requirements including compliance, risk management, security, and regulatory bodies like the ECB.

Read at Techzine Global