Founded in 1930 and headquartered in Jordan, Arab Bank is one of the oldest banks in the Middle East. Operating out of 28 countries, we’ve earned our customers’ trust with a prudent approach to operations and respect for the cultures and customs in the region. 

With a few exceptions where cloud providers have hosted their datacenter in a Middle Eastern or North African country, the banking sector, in general, in the region has been slow to adopt cloud technology for a number of reasons, including concern about data security, maturity and security controls of cloud services (PaaS and SaaS), and regulations in place. But on the other hand, we saw the opportunity to accelerate our development and testing using the cloud, as well as to partner with the fintech community and digital service providers to integrate their solution in the banking ecosystem. We needed more flexibility to connect with the outside world, and a more open architecture to help us drive our internal innovation at a faster rate with the help of the fintech industry. By collaborating with Google Cloud, we reached those goals and accelerated app development and testing through products like Apigee and Anthos. We’re now offering innovative apps and services to our customers and employees that leverage new technological capabilities to give more agility and flexibility, and to optimize our workloads.

Embracing the cloud in a regulated industry 

To get started with the cloud, we needed to create internal awareness about cloud technology, the API layer, containers and their benefits amongst our leaders and staff. Google helped us educate and get buy-in from key functions by organizing open technology demonstration sessions and discussion panels. When considering potential cloud providers we had four decision criteria: maturity of security controls, ease of use, cost, and scalability / agility for new deployments and continuous innovation. This last factor was critical, and we were impressed by Google Cloud’s innovation roadmap, both via direct conversations and at Google’s Next conference, where we met a lot of people passionate about technology, innovation and building something new.  

Going back to our journey, given the above-mentioned regional limitations, we started to develop a hybrid cloud approach. This helped us continue to operate on-premises for a number of services in production, particularly those that have personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive data attached, and to leverage the cloud for development, testing and production workloads that don’t contain customer data. 

In the short term, we didn’t anticipate that our many jurisdictions would allow data to be transported to other countries. But cloud tools will allow us to tokenize or anonymize customer data while maintaining customer data on-premises. This applies to many digital journeys such as customer onboarding, credit facility online applications, or marketplace navigation. In the coming years, we predict our API integration with partners will accelerate and enrich the overall digital value proposition of our business segments, namely consumer banking, small and medium-size businesses and large corporate and institutional clients. 

Building connections and cornerstones in the cloud

The first move in our digital transformation was to implement Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, to connect to the world’s digital banking ecosystem. Apigee provides the security, sharing, mediation policies, and developer portal capabilities for us to successfully meet Open Banking standards while focusing on innovation.  

On the back of the Apigee implementation, we created an accelerator program to incubate Fintech ideas that can, in turn, integrate into our digital platforms and be offered to our customers. We also developed various banking APIs, all designed and documented in accordance with PSD2 and Open Banking regulations, and made them available to our partners. These APIs exposed on our API development portal offer the needed code structure for fintech companies to design creative solutions around them.

Next, we adopted Anthos, Google Cloud’s managed application platform. Anthos has become a cornerstone of our operations because it works across hybrid cloud, offering integration of microservice containers and fueling collaborative opportunities with external parties. Our current Anthos infrastructure includes several hundreds of  microservices now running on containers in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and on-premises. We now use the cloud for collaboration, development and testing, but not for production, which is done on-premises. 

Along the way, Google Cloud’s Professional Services Organization (PSO) helped us through the entire cloud setup process, and with the adoption of Anthos. We originally built on the cloud tools through an iterative process, learning from our successes and errors along the way. Now that we have a better sense of how Anthos operates, we’re building a fresh infrastructure atop a sound, stable, and resilient foundation that will let us scale easily as we work to transform Arab Bank into a digital-first enterprise, that is our ambition. 

Currently products running on Anthos include customer acquisition and onboarding via mobile apps, and our Arabi-Pay app, which allows customers to instantly pay each other via WhatsApp or other messaging platforms. Leveraging Anthos, our instant loan service for Arab Bank salaried employees can grant and disburse loans up to $7,000 in less than seven minutes.

In addition, we’ve built a number of digital journeys for our Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) customers, such as our SME client digital onboarding process and paperless SME lending platform.

While some may think that digital adoption in this part of the world can be slow, as customer contact remains anchored in our customs, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital banking services and electronic payments, inspiring more confidence to buy and pay online. Thanks to our rich and user-friendly banking app that relies on Apigee and Anthos for critical customer journeys, over 90% of new-to-bank customers are using our mobile apps. Within the next 18 months, we predict that number will be closer to 100%. 

Of course, with higher customer adoption comes the challenge of potential service interruptions. A single moment of downtime can be highly visible to many digital customers. But Google Cloud’s Anthos and Apigee give us the flexibility to resume processes at a fast rate, so any interruptions are almost invisible to our customers. In fact, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, though our branches could be open only for limited hours each day, our consumer clients in particular were able to take advantage of our digital services in a very self-sufficient manner. Being well positioned with Google Cloud, we could also keep our internal teams and external partners connected and productive. Without Google Cloud, continuing the digital transformation of the bank at the pace we wanted would have been a big challenge. 

Collaborating across borders and time zones

With Google Cloud, our ability to collaborate and partner has transformed significantly. We operate 24/7 now because our developers are scattered across multiple geographies and different time zones. Because testing and deployment can run around the clock, including on weekends, we currently deploy a new digital journey in a few weeks, faster than ever before. This has given our organization a spirited mindset that prioritizes innovation, and raised the bar in terms of our operating model.  

Another consideration about Google Cloud tools is the elimination of inefficient processes typically seen in a software development lifecycle. We now build in a completely agile manner, from design squads until deployment in production. Compared to where we were two years ago, when we had an annual maximum of two systems releases in production, we now have close to monthly releases of our digital packages. In addition, we also  supplement those monthly releases with additional ad-hoc releases and fixes in between. As a result, we have removed internal silos and improved tremendously the collaboration between the product and sales teams, operations, IT Dev Factory and Infrastructure, as well as our supporting functions.

Through the agile process facilitated by APIs, we introduced Design Thinking workshops involving external customers and prospects early on to understand their true pain points better and emotions during the existing journeys and how to make new digital journeys frictionless. As a result, the relevance of our products for various customer personas has improved tremendously. 

Transcending banking 

With Google Cloud, we can offer our customers so much more than just banking. We’ve become more digitally relevant to their lives. For example, we recently launched a mortgage app that helps customers all the way from home selection through mortgage negotiations and closing, and even to getting the home decorated. It’s an end-to-end journey in which API integration with key regional players was a cornerstone to our success. 

For other digital products, we have an extensive roadmap of lifestyle-based solutions relevant to each segment and age group. We’ve only scratched the surface of the services we can provide, and we see the cloud as the future for everything we want to do.

Read more about Google Cloud’s Open Banking solution to learn how you can simplify and accelerate the process of delivering open banking as required by PSD2. You can also view our video on Open Banking, powered by Apigee API Management.

The global-wide interruptions of the coronavirus pandemic provided the opportunity for businesses to take a closer look at how we work, learn, live, and consume. With work stoppages and quarantine orders in place, carbon emissions and pollution levels saw significant reductions, highlighting how business and environmental sustainability are linked. As the world returns to work, businesses need to adjust to the new reality and make decisions that will ensure the continuing sustainability of our planet. 

Understanding the need for sustainability

A recent Google-commissioned study by IDG, based on a global survey of more than 2,000 IT decision-makers, illustrated the importance of sustainability for organizations’ IT departments while also revealing that significant work is needed before businesses meet their sustainability goals. The good news is that ninety percent say that sustainability is a priority of their IT department and as more organizations consider the benefits of digital transformation and cloud migration, 75% report that sustainability is a “must-have” or “major consideration” when evaluating cloud providers.LEARN MOREIT Leaders Research ReportWhat are the biggest IT priorities in 2021? Explore insights from a survey of 2,000 Senior IT leaders conducted by IDG, in collaboration with Google Cloud.

Businesses face both internal and external pressures to reform their practices and processes to meet new targets around sustainability, and IT leaders have an important role to play in that effort. Specifically, 54% said sustainability initiatives were important to their companies because of corporate social responsibility, 46% said it was because of environmental regulations and mandates, and 40% said it was due to the climate change impacts.

The research also examined the areas where IT leaders are looking to make positive changes for sustainability in their organizations. Not surprisingly, 62% said in their IT infrastructure and data centers, 53% their supply chain, and 46% in their facilities and building operations.

Facing the obstacles to progress

However, for many organizations, behaviors lag intent. Only 67% actually have environmental sustainability targets in place. The gap between behavior and intent widens when looking at digitally forward vs. digitally conservative organizations. For the purposes of the study, digitally forward companies were defined as either digital natives or those with a digital strategy and implementation in place. Digitally conservative organizations either have no strategy in place, or are in the process of considering or planning digital transformations, but haven’t reached the stage of implementation. 

The study revealed that digital natives embracing cloud solutions were more likely than more conservative organizations to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. Twenty percent of digital natives are implementing IT initiatives to reduce emissions to become more environmentally sustainable, while only 10% of digitally conservative organizations have done so. 

When considering the effects of the COVID-10 pandemic, 20% of respondents from digital conservative organizations delayed or cancelled initiatives around reducing emissions to become more environmentally sustainable compared to only 12% for digitally forward respondents. 

Sustainability is in our DNA

Sustainability has been a core value for Google since our inception. We were the first major company to become carbon neutral in 2007 and we were the first major company to match our energy use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017 — and have continued to do so every year since. We are proud to operate the cleanest global cloud in the industry, and we’re the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy. It is this commitment that makes Google the leading choice for organizations with sustainability initiatives. 

To learn more about the IDG findings and how IT leaders are implementing sustainable solutions, download the full report.

Interested in how Google Cloud’s commitment to providing sustainable solutions can help IT leaders and their organizations meet their own sustainability targets?

Google is focused on enhancing our products to help billions of people take action to reduce their environmental footprint.

• Google creates tools and invests in technology that will foster a carbon-free future for everyone and reduce carbon footprints.
• Google Cloud is the only major cloud provider to purchase enough renewable energy to cover our entire operations, enabling us to operate the cleanest cloud in the industry.
• When running on Google Cloud, an organization’s usage is net carbon neutral, and the electricity used to power workloads is matched 100% with renewable energy.

Looking for more? Check out our blog that introduces the Google Cloud Region Picker, which helps organizations choose a Google Cloud region based on carbon footprint, price, and latency.

Many enterprises are looking to better manage extensions on their corporate devices. Extensions themselves are a great tool for productivity and customization of Chrome. However, some extensions can have the potential for far reaching rights to sites your users visit and devices they browse from, giving IT the desire to closely manage which extensions are in their environment and how they behave. 

In an earlier post in this series, we’ve detailed how Chrome Browser Cloud Management is the easiest way to audit installed extensions and manage them. However, some enterprises may need to still use Group Policy on Windows or plists on Mac to manage extensions. So lets touch on management through those methods, for organizations that haven’t quite made the move to Chrome Browser Cloud Management yet. 

For starters, here are some of the most used options for managing extensions (some also apply to apps) via Windows Group Policy or via Plists on Macs:

Installing or allowing extensions

• Extension Install Allow List: These are the extensions that you have approved to be installed within your environment. 
• Extension Install Force List: This will install the extension in the managed instance of Chrome. This setting overrides the extension block list policy, and the extension can’t be disabled on uninstalled. 
• Extension Allowed Types: Here you can create a list of what types of extensions and apps you will allow to be installed. Extensions, themes, user scripts, hosted applications, legacy packaged applications and platform applications are the values that are supported. Note that whatever you want to allow must be included in the list. Anything left off the list will not be installed. For more information on the different types, here is a link on Extensions and Apps in the Chrome web store. 
• Extension Install Sources: This policy allows you to get that older install functionality for specific URLs that you specify in this policy. Here is a link on the URL match patterns that can be used in this policy. 

Blocking extensions

• Extension Install Block List: These are the extensions that you will not allow to be installed. If they are installed already, they will be disabled. If a user tries to install them, it will be blocked. In the Chrome web store, the Add to Chrome button will be red and advise the user that the extension can’t be installed. 
• Block External Extensions: This setting will block extensions from external sources being installed. An example of this is if an installed application is adding an extension to Chrome via the registry, this setting will block that extension from loading. 

Advanced management options

• Extensions Settings: This policy provides a varied amount of functionality and requires a JSON script to be created and formatted in a single line string. This setting can be complex. We recommend using Chrome Browser Cloud Management as almost all of the functionality is included without needing to write JSON as well as the ability to audit installed extensions. If you do want to use this policy, it is covered in detail in the Managing Extensions in your Enterprise technical document. Some of the functionality that you can use within this policy are:
  • Install types: (Allowed, Blocked, Force Installed, Normal Installed) 
    • You can also display a custom message when the extension is blocked via the blocked installed message function.
  • Prevent extensions from altering websites: You can prevent all or specific extensions from running on specific websites. 
  • Managing by permissions: You can allow or block extensions by the specific rights or “permissions” that they require to run. 
    • This provides a baseline of functionality that you will or will not allow extensions to run on your users machines. 
    • If an extension is updated, bought, sold and updates the permissions that it requires, this will dynamically protect your users from permissions that you will not allow. 

Even if you decide that on-premises policy management is how you want to manage extensions long term, you can still use Chrome Browser Cloud Management to get much needed visibility into extensions that may exist in your environment. The newly improved apps and extension list is a great way to get a view of your current extension landscape, giving you more data to make better decisions around extension management.

You can enroll browsers to see this information, but still set policy through your existing tools if that’s your preference. 

Well, that’s it for this edition of Chrome Insider. Here’s where you can find more posts in the series, or you can learn more about Chrome Browser Cloud Management.

^{A note on Google’s commitment to inclusive naming conventions. The following policies have been deprecated, however will still continue to work until Chrome 95 to give administrators time to migrate to the new policies.– ExtensionInstallWhitelist replaced with ExtensionInstallAllowlist
– ExtensionInstallBlacklist replaced with ExtensionInstallBlocklist}

Now in its third year, the Google Cloud Research Innovators program has invited 37 new participants to work with each other and Google experts to accelerate their most promising projects. The program offers select researchers expanded technical and networking support from Google professionals, access to Google’s latest cloud technologies, and additional Google Cloud research credits. By collaborating across fields, sharing resources, and disseminating knowledge, Research Innovators aim to drive new discoveries and solve problems faster.

This year’s cohort includes researchers in a wide range of fields at North American institutions. They meet once a month with mentors and participate in research conferences and special training days. Here are a few of the Research Innovators solving real-world problems with Google Cloud:

• Elisa Chen at the University of Chicago uses Vertex AI Vision to develop a model that recognizes faces in illustrations in order to examine race, age, and gender representations in award-winning children’s books in the U.S.
• Swapneel Mehta at New York University uses Google Cloud’s machine learning and data processing tools to analyze disinformation online.
• Christopher Weber at the University of Arizona uses BigQuery and Data Studio to analyze voter registration data and visualize political behavior.
• ​​Guangming Zheng at the University of Maryland develops algorithms to identify cyanobacteria in freshwater lakes through satellite imagery, which can help assess threats to human health and ecosystems.

Previous Research Innovators have already generated scientific breakthroughs and had broad social impact: Tapio Schneider developed a ClimateMachine to simulate cloud cover, Richard Fernandes designed an app to monitor Canada’s leaf canopy, and Christoph Gorgulla accelerated drug discovery for COVID-19 treatments. Some of these innovators are now mentoring this year’s cohort to further advance the program’s goals and pass along its benefits.

If you’re a researcher interested in exploring the benefits of the cloud for your projects, apply here for access to the Google Cloud research credits program in eligible countries. To engage with the latest challenges and solutions in research and technology, sign up for NEXT, Google’s global exhibition of inspiration, innovation, and education in San Francisco August 29-31.