Capital One is accelerating its move to DevOps, an application development model popularized by technology companies to gives engineers more control over the software they create. The bank, which manages more than 70 million credit card accounts, believes putting responsibility for code in the hands of developers will help it keep up with consumers’ preferences for the latest digital products and services.

Capital One CIO Rob Alexander.

“Winners in banking are going to be the ones that recognize that technology is really going to play a central role in how consumers want to bank in the future,” says Rob Alexander, who has been leading Capital One’s IT department as its CIO since 2007. “We’ve got to be great at building software.”

Technical debt hampers banks not named Capital One

Most banks are juggling creaky mainframe and other legacy technologies, as well as working to overcome bureaucracy that has stifled innovation. Plans to upgrade decades-old technology infrastructure often take a back seat to emerging digital imperatives that capture CEOs’ attention. CIOs often find themselves losing the budget battle with multiple stakeholders clamoring for money to throw at digital strategies.

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