700+
mappings migrated on time
Simplified
data landscape with improved efficiency and productivity
Lowered
costs for data platform infrastructure
Built
an AI-ready data foundation
Partners
Trusted data as the fuel for banking innovation
At Rabobank, data is more than information — it's the lifeblood of banking. As one of Europe's leading financial institutions with $678 billion in assets, Rabobank built its reputation serving the food and agriculture sectors and today operates across 37+ countries. “We’ve long been a data-driven bank,” says Leo Diepstraten, Head of Risk & Finance Tech, Data Foundation. “Our data supports regulatory reporting, strategic decisions, governance, integration and architecture for business functions."
In recent years, the bank's data infrastructure had grown beyond 700 repositories on PowerCenter (PC) and Data Validation Option (DVO), creating complex integrations supporting multiple teams. IT faced rising demand for real-time reporting, combined with increased data sources, straining legacy systems that were hard to scale.
"We had on-prem servers that were end-of-life and [we] needed to reduce costs and simplify our landscape," Diepstraten recalls. “Our data platform needed to handle future growth, tech advances and importantly comply with regulatory compliance.” The on-premises SAP HANA database environment required immediate modernization to align with Rabobank’s broader cloud modernization strategy.
Beyond technical limits, Rabobank needed to innovate faster amid changing markets to respond to market conditions, regulatory demands and risk assessments. “Getting data right means getting business right,” says Edmond Tarée, Area Lead (VP) for Group Risk & Finance Data. “It lets you identify improvements and stay competitive.”
Diepstraten adds: “Data is the fuel for innovation in the bank and this injection is necessary for making the next step with AI.”
Partnering wisely for seamless cloud modernization
Rabobank formed a trusted ecosystem of technology partners, with Informatica providing the primary data platform, SAP the database technology and Cognizant as delivery partner. “We wanted trusted partners with deep expertise, experience and product knowledge,” says Tarée.
The solution centered on migrating PowerCenter to Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), leveraging the proven PowerCenter Modernization program with Cloud Data Integration (CDI) for enhanced efficiency and standardization. Simultaneously, the bank transitioned from on-prem SAP HANA to SAP HANA Cloud, creating a cloud-native data architecture for improved performance, flexibility and connectivity.
“We chose Informatica for its comprehensive suite of data management tools, cloud integration and proven track record in the industry. Its solutions align with our strategic goals, and provide the flexibility and scalability needed for our modernization efforts,” said Leo Diepstraten.
CDI templates accelerated integration development with prebuilt options, boosting engineer productivity through accelerated development cycles, while ensuring consistency and quality. “IDMC’s templates maximized our engineers’ efficiency and productivity moving to the cloud,” he says.
The modernization dramatically impacted workflows. “It's more technology migration; it changes how we work. It is much easier to develop in the cloud and it helps focus our energy where it really matters,” Tarée says. Rabobank invested in portals, training sessions and regular workshops to embed change.
Delivering lower costs and higher productivity
Thanks to Informatica’s one-stop PowerCenter Modernization, Rabobank efficiently delivered its migration on time, reducing cost, risk and effort. Decommissioning on-prem PowerCenter cut operational overhead. CDI templates lowered development time for new pipelines. “Our cloud journey vastly reduced data infrastructure costs,” Diepstraten reports.
Adopting a cloud-native architecture has eliminated the need for hardware maintenance, reduced energy consumption and enabled scaling of resources based on actual demand instead of planning for peak capacity.
Most importantly, it created a strong foundation for AI and advanced analytics, while meeting compliance and governance standards for AI applications. "To be ready for AI, data quality and the right platform are critical to move the data and make data ready for distribution — that’s where Informatica is helping prepare us for the future," Diepstraten explains.
From modern infrastructure to AI-ready banking
Rabobank plans to replicate this modernization across other business units. Top AI use cases include enhanced customer experiences, improved risk management and streamlined operations. The team is expanding IDMC capabilities with Data Quality and Data Catalog solutions to automate governance and data discovery.
“If we have good data, we know its lineage, the metadata, data quality and all these insights; this will really facilitate the whole logistical data chain using and applying AI,” says Tarée. “Imagine you’re in the risk assessment department, AI can give you a lot of power to make your life easier, and in reporting, AI provides insights previously unseen.”
Diepstraten advises other organizations considering similar cloud transformations to start with thorough preparation. “Start with very well-prepared investigations. Know where you are and where you want to go on your modernization journey. Then ensure you have great technology partners like Informatica and SAP to deliver that vision.”
