Wibmo, a PayU Company, Cuts Costs by 40% and Supports Global Expansion After Migrating Payment Authentication Platform to AWS

Established in 1999, Wibmo, a PayU company, is a PayTech company that facilitates prepaid services, digital payments, and payment security for over 130 banks and fintech entities, handling more than 3 billion transactions each year. In 2019, Wibmo was acquired by PayU, a global fintech investor with investments surpassing $1 billion.

As the Indonesian digital payments market grew to be valued at approximately $88 billion, Wibmo set its sights on expanding into that market. In 2021, it launched Wibmo Protect, a contextual authentication platform for Indonesian banks to secure online payments more effectively. However, analysis revealed the high costs of running the platform in an Indonesian data center.

Wibmo focused on modernizing its Wibmo Protect solution as a cloud-native stack. The company turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Says Balaji S, head of IT at Wibmo, “We knew AWS was highly cost effective compared to other cloud providers and that it offered excellent support for customers at all stages of their application modernization and transformation journey.”

Wibmo worked with AWS Professional Services (AWS ProServe) and Rapyder, an AWS Partner, to redesign its Wibmo Protect platform for the cloud. AWS ProServe developed a cloud solution that meets PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and VISA 3D Secure (3DS) requirements set by credit card companies and complies with security information and event management, file integrity monitoring, and data loss prevention guidelines.

The AWS ProServe team integrated an on-premises hardware security module (HSM) for additional security into the cloud redesign. Their goal was to process transactions between the Mumbai-based HSM and AWS Asia Pacific (Jakarta) Region within 100 milliseconds. After testing several design concepts, the team achieved a latency of 70 milliseconds by connecting the HSM to an AWS landing zone in the Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region and syncing data between Mumbai and Jakarta through a virtual private network connection. 

After completing testing and ensuring compliance, Rapyder launched the platform's AWS environments. Rapyder developed a microservices-based infrastructure using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for computing, Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS) for orchestrating microservices. AWS Backup provides automated data protection and simplifies management across this hybrid solution.

The implementation of the AWS environments—all fully aligned with PCI DSS and VISA 3DS requirements—was achieved in just six months. “Ask me why we completed the work so efficiently, and I’d say it was due to great collaboration and the expertise of AWS ProServe and Rapyder,” states Balaji S.

Wibmo achieved a 40 percent reduction in cost per transaction on the Wibmo Protect platform by migrating to AWS. Comments Balaji S, “Using AWS to support Wibmo Protect has helped us achieve PCI DSS and VISA 3DS compliance and significantly lower costs.” Since the cloud-native stack went live in July 2023, AWS services have not only been highly reliable; they’ve also boosted management efficiency among the IT team. “Platform management processes that used to take a day can be completed in one hour, freeing up time for innovation,” says Balaji S.

With its hybrid infrastructure based on AWS, Wibmo can drive growth for the Wibmo Protect platform in Indonesia and worldwide more cost effectively. By connecting on-premises-based HSM solutions with AWS regions, the company can scale the offering to multiple countries in months. “Thanks to the savings from AWS, we can also offer Wibmo Protect at a more compelling price, boosting sales and bringing greater value to our customers,” adds Balaji S.

Wibmo looks forward to replicating the success of the Wibmo Protect project when it migrates HEXA, a prepaid card management platform, to AWS in late 2024. Directed at both financial and non-financial services companies, the HEXA platform helps merchants and fintech companies accept and manage payments using prepaid cards. Balaji S concludes, “We’re proof that a PayTech company looking to build highly scalable, reliable, and fully compliant digital payment solutions can find the cloud services it needs with AWS.”