By David Soto, President of Kyndryl Spain and Portugal
Spain’s economy is booming, fueled in large part by bold technological investments and rapid innovation that are transforming its industrial and digital landscape.
These advancements are especially evident in important areas like energy, financial services, healthcare and transportation — industries that many people often take for granted. In a way, that shows how well these sectors are doing their job. But a lot of work happens behind the scenes to make sure someone can receive medical care, buy groceries, manage their money or turn on the lights. Even though we know this, people sometimes forget about the complex systems and advanced technology needed to keep things humming.
Technology is the heart and lungs of any nation’s critical infrastructure — converting data to actionable insights (the oxygen of IT) and keeping the systems running in ways that may appear automatic. These insights fuel decision-making, enabling organizations to respond in real time and stay ahead of disruption. However, maintaining these services in working order requires an IT infrastructure that is fit-for-purpose, and managed to be secure, resilient, scalable and cost-effective. Essential tools such as AI and machine learning (ML) must be integrated across on-premises, cloud or hybrid environments. They use technology to optimize software solutions, helping to ensure lights stay on, transportation runs smoothly, and medical care is safe and innovative.
Connecting with customers
Sustainability is a critical component of energy delivery. That’s why Kyndryl customer Naturgy is driving efficiencies across all aspects of its operations in Spain, including customer service. Naturgy is committed to sustainable development with renewable energy sources, and the reduction of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions on the way to carbon neutrality by 2050. This commitment mirrors Kyndryl’s sustainability strategy, and relies on advanced technologies to streamline the production and distribution of energy.
Empowering their customers to control energy consumption is a vital component of Naturgy’s sustainability strategy. Working with Kyndryl to design, build and manage a modern IT estate, Naturgy is rolling out a new customer relationship platform. The enhanced offering will enable customers to quickly perform or request transactions, view historical information on consumption and invoices, and track transactions in real time.
Maintaining business continuity
If the banks go offline, the global economy stops. Unfortunately, many in the financial services sector suffer from significant technical debt. Key IT infrastructure components are at or near their end of life, are no longer supported by their vendors, and can’t run the modern solutions that can help protect against — and recover from — cybersecurity threats. Migrating customer and operational data to modern platforms is essential. But maintaining business continuity during the process is extremely challenging without the right people with the right skills.
That’s why Bankinter, S.A. chose Kyndryl to migrate its data and AI models to modern platforms offering greater reliability, security and scalability. The project also had to protect Bankinter’s earlier technology investments by incorporating legacy networks into the new system. As part of the migration effort, Kyndryl experts worked closely with the bank’s data scientists and engineers to optimize workflows and accelerate value delivery to the business. With its new systems integrated successfully, Bankinter is now positioned to offer more personalized services to its customers, supported by powerful analytics from an AI-infused modern IT infrastructure.
Removing friction from logistics
Movement is essential to any economy, and Spain’s Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility oversees the country’s roads, railways, air traffic and maritime activities. Information technology is the backbone of the Ministry’s operations, but as some of its legacy systems become obsolete, it’s time to modernize. The challenge is keeping things working smoothly while migrating data and operations to cloud environments, updating the Ministry’s digital workplaces, and strengthening cybersecurity and resiliency. Modernization efforts also must protect the Ministry’s previous IT investments and position the organization for expansion.
This is no time for missteps, lack of familiarity with complex logistics or cobbled together off-the-shelf solutions. That’s why the Ministry is working with Kyndryl to develop and manage technology support services, including operations and communications systems and data centers. Kyndryl will continue to help Spain keep its critical infrastructure up and running.
Using data to improve health outcomes
The Health Research Institute Hospital La Fe (IIS La Fe) is a multi-institutional biomedical research entity in Valencia, Spain. Its goal is to support researchers in their work so that they can continue helping patients. Advanced technologies form the core of this mission, and that is why IIS La Fe is working with Kyndryl to design, build and manage a supercomputing data center to support research on precision medicine and healthcare system efficiency.
Specifically, the supercomputing data center will enable IIS La Fe to develop AI models that speed and improve medical diagnoses and suggest therapies — all within a patient-centered context for improved experiences and outcomes. And by supporting more than 1,400 researchers, 5,000 research projects and 273 active clinical trials, the new data center will be a game changer for IIS La Fe and healthcare in Spain.
Kyndryl also has partnered with the Balearic Islands Public Health System (IBSalut) to design, develop and test a new platform for clinical-genomic analysis. The new system will help identify genomic matches between patients and relatives by applying AI to phenotyping and genetic analysis. Kyndryl is building this potentially life-saving technology into an open-source cloud-based platform, enabling specialists to operate in the field while protecting patient data.
As these sectors continue to thrive, they drive our nation’s economy forward, ensuring that essential services operate seamlessly. The collaboration between organizations such as Naturgy, Bankinter, the Ministry, IIS La Fe and IBSalut with technology partners like Kyndryl highlights the commitment to innovation and sustainability.
By tapping into advanced technologies and modernizing infrastructure regularly, Spain is poised to maintain its economic momentum and future for its citizens and the organizations that serve them.
