Chase Alumni Association

#9 JPMC Meets Amazon 

     in the Cloud                

(January 2025)    

Lori Beer, the Global Chief Information Officer of JPMC (my former employer), was on stage at AWS re:Invent in early December 2024 to discuss JPMC's cloud transformation journey with Amazon Web Services (AWS, my current employer, where I work as an enterprise architect). re:Invent is an annual conference in Las Vegas where AWS announces new cloud services and provides technical training and enablement for customers and partners.

She highlighted how JPMC is leveraging AWS's cloud infrastructure services to modernize its business platforms, provide services to 82 million customers globally, drive $10 trillion in payments daily, and provide banking services to 6+ million small and mid-sized businesses. 

In my first article of 2025, we’ll take a deeper look at what the cloud is, how JPMC utilizes it to meet the demands of a growing and global consumer base, and the role of Amazon and other cloud providers in making it possible.

JPMC's cloud journey began several years ago, and they have now migrated nearly a thousand applications to AWS, including mission-critical services like deposit and payment systems and the entire Chase.com website. JPMC is also using AWS's data management and AI tools to extract valuable insights from their own datasets and provide apps that make employees more productive.

“We’re already seeing value from some LLM Suite (Generative AI) use cases. Our bankers and advisors receive AI-generated ideas to better engage with clients. Our travel agents leverage LLMs to help build and book trip itineraries for our customers. Our contact center reps summarize call transcripts and provide insights at scale. And our developers are using AI code generation tools. We are currently exploring ways to leverage developer AI agents in parallel.”

– Lori Beer, Global CIO of JPMorgan Chase

What is the cloud?

The cloud, in the context of technology and not the fluffy white things in the sky, refers to a network of remote servers and infrastructure accessed over the internet. These servers provide various enterprise technology services, such as databases, analytics, artificial intelligence, networking and general computing power. Since this infrastructure is managed over a network, it is accessible anywhere in the world where there’s internet.

Cloud computing transforms how organizations operate and deliver value by shifting traditional on-premises infrastructure to internet-based services. Instead of investing heavily in physical hardware and data centers, companies can rent exactly what they need from cloud providers, paying only for their actual usage. This model eliminates large upfront costs and converts capital expenses into more manageable operational expenses.

The cloud enables unprecedented operational flexibility, allowing businesses to scale their resources up or down instantly based on demand. Organizations can deploy applications globally with just a few clicks, reaching customers wherever they are while maintaining high performance. Cloud providers handle routine maintenance, security updates and hardware upgrades, freeing internal teams from these time-consuming tasks.

Perhaps most importantly, cloud computing accelerates business innovation and agility. Companies can test new ideas quickly without risking significant infrastructure investments. They gain access to cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics that would be costly to implement independently. This allows organizations to focus their resources on their core business objectives rather than managing IT infrastructure, ultimately enabling faster response to market changes and customer needs.

Where does Amazon fit into all of this?

JPMC, like many large financial institutions, uses a hybrid approach combining AWS with their own data centers for several compelling reasons. The primary driver is the ability to scale computing resources rapidly without massive upfront capital investments. During peak trading periods or end-of-quarter processing, AWS allows them to instantly access additional computing power, then scale down when demand decreases – something that's impossible with physical data centers alone.

Cost efficiency is another major factor. While it is still necessary for JPMC to maintain its own data centers for certain core banking functions and compliance requirements, AWS handles JPMC’s variable workloads more economically. The pay-as-you-go model eliminates the need to build data centers sized for maximum capacity that might only be needed a few times per year.

AWS also provides immediate access to cutting-edge technologies without requiring internal development. Services like machine learning tools, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities are readily available and continuously updated. This allows JPMC to innovate faster and compete with fintech startups that are born in the cloud. The global reach of AWS data centers also helps JPMC serve international markets without building physical infrastructure in each region.

Click here for the recent remarks by Lori Beer, JPMC's Global Chief Information Officer.

 

If this is a topic you’d like to learn more about, please let me know via the Tech Corner survey. I’ve been working for AWS since 2022 and have picked up a lot of knowledge about the cloud and how business can build and scale effectively on it, while meeting complex requirements.

Thank you!

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Links to Prior CAA Tech Corner Columns

#1 Artificial Intelligence

#2 Generative AI

#3 Autonomous Cars

#4 Anatomy of a Modern Credit Card

#5 How to Whitelist an Email Address

#6 Multi-Factor Authentification

#7 The Science of a $100 Bill

#8 The CrowdStrike Disaster