NAB selectes Databricks to form the backbone of its data strategy.
The NAB strategy is designed to meet the increasing demand for data to securely power use cases across the bank including delivering personalised experiences, detecting and preventing fraud and scams, optimising digital engagement and managing risk.
By combining the best qualities of a data warehouse and data lake, the Databricks cloud-based lakehouse will enable NAB to support all its major data workloads, from real-time analytics and data science to AI-driven recommendation as well as being the source for significant risk management activities such as financial crime and regulatory reporting.
NAB Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Christian Nelissen, said NAB’s investment in data, including its work with Databricks, was about securely delivering data at scale and speed.
“Our data strategy is to make data in the bank like electricity,”
The majority of Australians assume that electricity is available when they need it and that it will be delivered safely and at the right standard. Data at NAB should be the same.” Mr Nelissen said,
In just over six months from contract signing, NAB has been able to implement Databricks, delivered the first three data sources onto the platform as well as operationalising the first use case.
“We were able to move so quickly because the Group is already cloud-native and engineering-lead, we didn’t have to go out and hire hundreds of engineers to make this work.”
“It helped that Databricks has been such a strong partner in working alongside us to make this work” said Mr Nelissen,
“From here, our plan is to deliver all of the core data sources in the bank onto the platform. We have also started working on decommissioning our legacy platforms.”
“Databricks also gives us the opportunity to increase the security of data on the platform and strengthens our controls on privacy and data risk management”
“Our data platform is internally named Ada, after Ada Lovelace. She worked closely with Charles Babbage in bringing the theory of the first computer design to life in the 1800’s.”
‘We loved the idea that she was someone who collaborated with others to help them be successful and this partnership is how we think of the role of the data platform in the Group.”
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Databricks Asia Pacific, Ed Lenta, said it had been exciting to play a role in NAB’s lakehouse vision and data journey to help democratise and unlock the value of data.
“We look forward to supporting NAB as they continue to build on their data capabilities, leveraging the scale and efficiency of Databricks to deliver enhanced outcomes for their organisation and customers,” Mr Lenta said.
