Client Spotlight: hypotheke.ch on OpenShift
Successful container migration in the financial services sector: HYPOTHEKE.ch goes the way of efficiency. Switching to OpenShift not only drastically reduced development times, but also brought transparency and flexibility to mortgage borrowers to a new level.
What is hypotheke.ch?
HYPOTHEKE.ch is the leading B2C mortgage platform in Switzerland. It connects property owners with banks, insurance companies and pension funds. As a technology-based platform, HYPOTHEKE.ch digitises supply and demand in the mortgage market and enables mortgage borrowers to find and take out the best mortgage in the shortest possible time. More than 30 financing partners are connected.
The web application supports end customers, lenders and the HYPOTHEKE.ch team in the processing of mortgage transactions. Digitalisation is consistently applied, driven forward and expanded with the aim of offering customers the most favourable conditions with full transparency and flexibility. Lenders benefit from dossiers that are ready to be closed and from a coordinated process with a very high success rate. With as little effort as possible for everyone involved.
Implementation: Containers don't hurt!
As a proof of concept, a test environment was set up on the aspectra OpenShift platform in June 2022. Lars Schultz, Head Software Engineer at HYPOTHEKE.ch, migrated the application from a more traditional hosted environment to a container-based OpenShift4 environment. He recalls the migration process: "We had to move our database to a MongoDB cluster and run the Nginx/PHP instances stateless, i.e. without their own data. Several other containers run as mini-services that are used by the main application. This modularisation has since solved a number of problems for us, or at least made a solution possible in the first place. Local development in a similar container environment leads to fewer problems in the operating environment, and the automated deployment via the OpenShift API also makes life easier for us".
After the successful completion of the PoC, the few remaining questions were clarified and the specifications were defined in a solution workshop in August 2022. Things then moved at breakneck speed, with the application going live on the managed OpenShift platform in record time and the DNS migrated to aspectra in mid-September. The rapid implementation underlines the efficiency of the migration process.
Operation: ... and a WAF doesn't hurt either!
After just over a year, the conclusion is clearly positive: "The migration took us a total of around six months of development time. We also had to build up OpenShift expertise and adapt the operation to aspectra's specific security requirements. Now, we hardly notice the preconfigured WAF and it can usually be easily adapted to our needs. Otherwise, we adapt. Communication with aspectra is very efficient and direct. This has saved us a lot of time. The initial effort should not be underestimated, but we are very satisfied and feel that we are in good hands," says Schultz.
The platform is hosted in our highly secure, highly available, ISO 27001-certified and FINMA-compliant data centres. It is protected by an upstream WAF with ClientCert authentication and IP restrictions for individual subsites. VPN and Jumpstation secure home office access. HYPOTHEKE.ch's experience shows that migrating to container technology not only brings technological advantages, but can also lead to a more effective and customer-friendly business solution.
More about Managed OpenShift at aspectra