In an era of remote work and data security awareness, ABN AMRO chooses ChromeOS Flex and ChromeOS

Editor’s note: Today’s post is by Markus Hap, CTO for APAC, and Joost van Doorn, Deputy CTO for APAC and Head of Technology Office, both for ABN AMRO, the Dutch financial services company. ABN AMRO’s Asia-Pacific region team, based in Singapore, is using Chrome OS and CloudReady to work securely in the cloud, reduce total cost of ownership, and add flexibility for employees.

Financial services organizations have to be exceptionally careful when bringing in new technology, especially when it helps our employees work in the cloud. There’s the safety of our customer data to consider, as well as safeguarding our business against cyberattacks — all while we work to help employees stay mobile, especially in an era of widespread remote work. ChromeOS and laptops with ChromeOS Flex installed allow devices to go home for remote work, while protecting financial data.

The business is safer without data on laptops

In our Asia-Pacific region, employees are mostly working with corporate and institutional clients. We have to adhere to data privacy and security regulations not only for Asia-Pacific, but for Europe as well, where ABN AMRO is based, and then also Dutch regulations. When we put all these regulations together, we have to aim for solutions that meet the most restrictive requirements.

In 2019, we wanted to move away from our Windows laptops that had software and data stored on them. Simply put, we didn’t want data to be present on employee devices. If an employee lost one of those laptops, the bank would also lose the data. Even with encryption, the laptop could be stolen along with information about an employee’s password. We have to account for every scenario.

We aligned and tested the security of the solution together with our global CISO colleagues. With the help of Google, we were able to resolve all security findings.

Speed was also a problem with Windows laptops. Our head office in Amsterdam, where the ABN AMRO data centers are, is more than 10,000 kilometers away from the Asia-Pacific offices. Connecting to the home data centers was very slow, and cloud adoption in banking was still just starting up at that time. As soon as we could go cloud, we wanted to do so in order to move data faster, and remove some of the data security concerns around laptops carrying loads of data.

ChromeOS Flex was the answer to our multiple challenges of wanting to work in the cloud, while staying secure and speeding up data transfer. We loaded ChromeOS Flex onto about 350 laptops for our Asia-Pacific employees, and obtained Chrome Enterprise Upgrade licenses so we could manage all of the devices. Everyone from our IT department to the relationship managers who work with customers, now uses a laptop with ChromeOS Flex.

We worked with GSA Private Limited, a ChromeOS Partner, to provide end-to-end support for transforming our existing fleet into ChromeOS devices. This enabled a higher integration and a more secure environment for running operations across different endpoints.

Costs go down, thanks to less support needed

It was a good thing that we’d equipped many employees with the ChromeOS Flex installed laptops, because the devices made the abrupt switch to remote work in March 2020 easier to manage. Naturally, our first thoughts were about how our employees would be able to work from home, and how we’d continue to manage security.

Fortunately, the end user experience for people using devices with ChromeOS Flex was very good. People are familiar with the easy user interface if they are used to Gmail and other Google Workspace apps. On the IT end, we can keep the Chrome browser screen uncluttered, with only the apps and links that employees need for their work. And working with cloud applications is much faster than trying to retrieve data 10,000 kilometers away.

We get far fewer trouble tickets than we did with the Windows laptops, and when employees do come to us with problems, we can solve them faster. When you take away the support headaches and factor in the improved security, the total cost of ownership for the laptops with ChromeOS Flex installed is about 15 percent less than it was before.

Using ChromeOS Flex allows us to feel peace of mind. ChromeOS Flex keeps us in compliance with the many financial regulations, and with client data in the cloud, we don’t sweat over misplaced or lost laptops.

ChromeOS Flex and Chrome Enterprise Upgrade have essentially been foolproof for us. Imagine the old way of maintaining and troubleshooting Windows laptops: Employees would have to come to the office and deliver the laptop, while we reloaded software and took the device out of service for a couple of hours.

ChromeOS Flex helps employees ease back into office work

With ChromeOS Flex and Chrome Enterprise Upgrade we can manage devices and solve problems remotely. This helps with some of the work/life issues the employees have been managing, since we don’t need people to travel to our offices to get help. Some employees are finding that there are advantages to working from home, and in response, the bank has adopted a hybrid way of working. We’re pleased that we can help them work flexibly where they want to.

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