GFT, the global provider of advisory, business consulting, IT and software services to the financial services community, announces its membership of Google’s Partner Programme. This new collaboration allows GFT to deploy its distributed ledger test infrastructure for banks on Google’s Cloud Platform, helping global banking clients to simulate real-world distributed ledger models within a globally distributed and scalable test environment.

Utilising the Google Cloud Platform, GFT is able to rapidly deploy the code developed by their client development teams into GFT’s blockchain incubator to simulate real-word scenarios. At the click of a button, it is possible to simulate additional banks coming online to a distributed ledger, then rapidly gather and interpret the data using Google BigQuery. This provides clients with detailed and specific insights into how their blockchain solutions will operate in the real word. Rapid deployment and data feedback, enhanced with tools such as Google Cloud Bigtable and BigQuery along with the latest DevOps solutions such as containerization and Kubernetes, supports agile decisions and allows innovators to focus development efforts on the most efficient channels possible.

Disruptive business models, underpinned by distributed ledger technologies, typically enable banks that have an ‘untrusted’ relationship, to communicate with trust, but without a ‘middleman’ who traditionally provides the ‘trusted’ confirmation. This brings great potential to overhaul many of the core issues that have hindered the financial industry, such as costly and complex legacy infrastructure. However, such advances must be tested securely and at scale before they can be considered to be a viable solution.

The most recent implementation of GFT’s test environment has been for a distributed ledger domestic and international payments solution on the Ethereum platform, working with a large European bank. During the course of this testing, GFT has supported its client to understand how their platform scales to realistic payments volumes, and provided them with valuable information on how the solution stacks up.

Gareth Richardson, Managing Director, GFT said: “We are really excited to be able to support our clients in driving their distributed ledger agendas; helping them to make their innovation investments a reality. Through our partnership with Google we are able to better understand the capabilities of this exciting technology and its impact on the financial services interbank architecture. GFT is well placed to assist our clients as they mature their distributed ledger business models and solutions”.

Nick Weisfeld, Head of GFT’s Blockchain and Data Practices comments, “It is important for us to work with a partner where there is a complimentary relationship that delivers mutual benefit. Working with Google has enabled us to create a test environment for a new Royal Bank of Scotland application using real-world volumes, providing them with valuable information on how their solution operates detailed in a new technical paper. This ability to test at scale has enabled our client to bring their distributed ledger initiative out of the lab and into the real-world in record time, creating an industry-leading solution.“