SimCorp has undertaken a fundamental reset of its technology platform to support artificial intelligence at scale, centering its strategy on a clear principle: migrate data rather than replicate legacy environments. Instead of lifting and shifting existing client setups, the company rebuilt them within a standardized software-as-a-service architecture on Microsoft Azure, transferring data and integrations through carefully managed cutovers. This approach ensures that governance is embedded by design, maintaining consistency across regions, tenants, and regulatory frameworks.
According to Ulrik Elstrup Hansen, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Platform at SimCorp, the transformation was not driven by cloud adoption alone but by foundational requirements. The company prioritized built-in governance, predictable operations, and the ability to support AI without introducing new control risks. By defining these principles upfront, SimCorp aimed to create a platform capable of scaling securely in increasingly complex regulatory environments.
At the core of the new SimCorp One platform is a modular tenant architecture that replaces environment-level customization with standardized building blocks. Each client environment is constructed from the same shared code base, with differentiation achieved through the selection and combination of application modules rather than bespoke configurations. This model enables SimCorp to deliver SaaS at scale while containing operational risk and maintaining consistency in deployment and governance practices.
Nicholas Preetzmann, Distinguished Architect at SimCorp, emphasized that uniformity in how tenants are built is key to scalability. By standardizing modules instead of tailoring entire environments, the company reduces complexity while improving reliability. The result is a platform where variation is controlled and predictable, supporting both efficiency and compliance.
Microsoft Azure serves as the control plane underpinning this architecture, providing centralized identity management, logging, monitoring, and security enforcement across all regions. This unified framework allows SimCorp to meet local regulatory requirements without redesigning its controls for each market. To ensure consistent workload execution globally, the company standardized on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), enabling scalable, production-grade deployments while avoiding configuration drift.
Preetzmann noted that adopting AKS was a deliberate decision to streamline operations without turning the platform itself into an additional layer of operational burden. By leveraging managed services, SimCorp can focus on application delivery rather than infrastructure maintenance, further enhancing scalability.
The platform’s infrastructure, application services, configurations, and integrations are deployed through automated pipelines, reinforcing consistency and repeatability. This “deployment as code” approach accelerates rollout across regions and strengthens operational discipline. Hansen highlighted that for a regulated financial platform, visibility is not merely an operational advantage but a prerequisite for auditability and trust, underscoring the broader strategic importance of the transformation.