Shahaf Almagor

This session will explore the transformation journey of a global fintech company that set out to modernize its analytical ecosystem while still operating with legacy on-premise systems. I will share the key challenges we faced across technology, architecture, processes, culture, and organizational positioning, including the shift from a service-oriented data function to a more strategic, product-oriented model. The session will also cover how this transformation aligned with the wider technology organization’s modernization of the operational platform, including event-driven architecture, low-latency requirements, and multi-cloud complexity. I will then describe the main actions we took: conducting a thorough gap analysis, redesigning and restructuring the organization, realigning processes, and modernizing the technology stack. Finally, I will discuss how the rise of AI impacted the transformation and forced us to run in three lanes in parallel: decommissioning the on-premise past, aligning with the modern platform being built in the present, and defining what an AI-first data architecture should look like for the future. The session will conclude with the biggest takeaways and key learnings from this journey.