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Does Santander's Cloud Migration Actually Deliver?
Santander claims to have completed its Spanish tech infrastructure overhaul with Gravity, asserting improvements in customer experience, agility, and efficiency, but the real impact is questionable.
Key Highlights
- Santander has shifted its core technology infrastructure in Spain to Gravity, its in-house cloud-based core banking platform, though its effectiveness is unproven.
- The migration is supposed to enable faster data access, more agile processes, and advanced automation, but these benefits are speculative at this stage.
- Gravity allegedly allows new functionalities to be rolled out in hours rather than weeks and supports more frequent app updates, yet evidence of consistent delivery is lacking.
- This move in Spain is part of Santander’s push to operate fully in the cloud globally, with a claimed 70% reduction in IT energy consumption, though such figures warrant scrutiny.
- The platform is pitched as a draw for tech talent, but whether it will attract and retain Santander’s 24,000 tech professionals remains uncertain.
The News
Santander has announced the migration of its Spanish technology infrastructure to Gravity, its proprietary cloud-based core banking platform. This shift places Santander España’s core technology in the cloud, processing over 4.3 billion transactions annually. The bank suggests this will lead to greater agility, efficiency, and security for customers through automation, but these claims lack concrete validation. For more details, see the press release.
Analyst Take
Santander’s alleged completion of its Gravity deployment in Spain is a step in the banking sector’s cloud adoption trend, but details are scant, and the fact that a bank is issuing a press release about a technology project seems odd, well, to me at least.
First off, let's start with a history lesson. Almost 3 years ago, Google and Santander announced a collaboration around a core technology, Dual Run. Dual Run is a service designed to simplify and de-risk mainframe modernization for enterprises in sectors such as financial services, retail, and healthcare. This service enables parallel processing, allowing customers to simultaneously run workloads on their existing mainframes and on Google Cloud for real-time testing and data collection. Dual Run helps organizations meet compliance requirements and is built on technology from Banco Santander, integrating with Micro Focus' (now Rocket Software) platform, with support from partners like Accenture and Capgemini.
While Santander has progressed with migrations in its corporate and investment banking (CIB) division, the UK, and Chile, the Spanish rollout doesn’t automatically signal success. Completing this in a complex market like Spain shows persistence, but the broader implications depend on whether the promised benefits materialize.
The touted advantages of Gravity—faster data access, quicker feature deployment, and frequent app updates—are what banks need to compete with fintechs, but there’s little evidence these are being delivered reliably. Mainframe systems that have not embraced DevOps processes and the latest technological advances can hinder innovation, and cloud migration might help, but claims of launching functionalities in hours rather than weeks sound ambitious and require rigorous validation, especially as customer expectations for seamless services grow. I also question the availability of cloud-based services for mission-critical workloads such as core banking. The recent outage of the Google cloud platform is just the latest example.
What was Announced
Santander has allegedly migrated its core technology infrastructure in Spain to Gravity, its proprietary banking platform and software. Gravity is presented as the bank’s global core banking cloud technology, aiming to digitize operations fully, though its ability to achieve this is questionable. As software, it supports the shift from mainframe to cloud. Key features include:
- Cloud-Native Architecture: Gravity is built for the cloud, claiming speed, security, and efficiency in data access and feature rollouts. It uses a hybrid cloud model, including Google Cloud for segments like Santander CIB, but its reliability under stress is untested.
- Data Access and Processing: The platform supposedly offers faster data access for real-time analytics and better customer service, with simultaneous processing on mainframes and the cloud. Whether this delivers meaningful improvements is unclear.
- Time-to-Market: Gravity claims to cut development cycles from weeks to hours, supported by a modern developer environment, but consistent execution at this pace is doubtful.
- Efficiency and Cost Savings: The migration aims for efficiencies via automation, with a reported 70% reduction in IT energy consumption, but long-term financial benefits are speculative.
- Scalability: Designed to handle high transaction volumes, Gravity processes over 4.3 billion transactions annually in Spain, with peaks of 33,000 per second. Its global scalability, targeting one trillion operations, is ambitious but unproven.
- Parallel Processing (Dual Run): Gravity’s software allows simultaneous workload processing on mainframes and the cloud, enabling testing without disruption. This has been commercialized by Google Cloud as “Dual Run,” but its practical value is uncertain.
- Talent Attraction: Gravity is pitched as a modern environment for Santander’s 24,000 tech staff, but whether it will draw top talent accustomed to cutting-edge tech ecosystems is questionable.
This shift aims to make Santander more digital, emphasizing agility and customer experience, but the extent of these improvements is dubious, as details are scant. The cloud might attract developers wary of legacy systems, but Santander’s ability to compete for top talent against tech giants is uncertain. Cost savings, including the 70% IT energy reduction, sound promising, but we need independent verification. The claim of being the first major Western bank to operate 100% in the cloud is bold but likely exaggerated, as “100% cloud” often excludes certain applications and relies on hybrid setups.
The Spanish implementation, handling complex products and high transaction volumes, is a test case for global rollout, with Brazil and Mexico apparently coming next. Santander’s goal of 80% cloud migration group-wide and its “One Transformation” strategy for 173 million customers are ambitious, but execution risks remain. The Openbank US launch, using Gravity, is a milestone, but its success is not guaranteed. Watch this space.
Looking Ahead
Santander’s Gravity deployment in Spain reflects a long-term tech modernization effort, but its impact is far from assured and confirmed - paint me skeptical until I find out more.I see a lot of arm waving, but what is missing is the next level of detail about the ‘how’ and ‘what’ was actually done in this project.
Migrating a core banking system to the cloud is complex, and while Santander has supposedly completed this phase, the real test is whether it translates into meaningful customer benefits and competitive advantages. I’ll be watching whether Santander can deliver market-differentiating services or if this is just another overhyped tech upgrade. True agility requires not just faster development but a culture of continuous improvement, and Santander’s track record here is unconvincing.
Recent events also underscore the risks of cloud reliance. On June 10th, 2025, Google Cloud experienced a widespread outage lasting over four hours, disrupting services for millions of users globally, including financial institutions. This incident exposed vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure, as critical systems like payment processing and customer data access were temporarily unavailable for affected banks. For mission-critical core banking systems like Gravity, which partially rely on Google Cloud, such outages could halt transactions, erode customer trust, and incur significant financial losses. Santander’s hybrid cloud strategy may mitigate some risks, but the outage highlights the need for robust contingency plans to ensure uninterrupted operations.
In the broader market, Santander’s progress is notable but not unique, as competitors like BBVA also advance in cloud adoption. The focus on cost savings and efficiency is practical, but the bigger question is whether Gravity can help Santander outpace digital banks and fintechs. The “One Transformation” initiative and Google Cloud’s Dual Run commercialization sound strategic, but their success is speculative at best. I’ll be tracking Santander’s performance on metrics like product launch speed, digital channel customer satisfaction, and efficiency gains, as well as the impact on branch operations, to see if this delivers or falls short of the hype. Most of all I will be watching for high-profile outages.
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.