Customer Background

AMML Microfinance Bank operated fully on-premise, with customer and transaction data stored across legacy storage systems that had become difficult and expensive to maintain. Rising storage costs, limited capacity, and frequent CBN-driven audits made data retrieval slow and operationally burdensome. AMML engaged Cognetiks Consulting to build a secure, AWS-powered archival system that would be low-cost, highly durable, and capable of instant search without traditional restoration delays.

The Customer Problem

The bank struggled with the limits of on-premise data storage—maintenance overhead, unreliable manual backup processes, and slow retrieval times that could delay compliance audits. Reconstructing historical data often took hours or days. There was no structured way to search archived records, and CBN’s strict requirements around encryption, redundancy, access control, and auditability made the existing setup insufficient. AMML needed a modern solution that balanced cost efficiency with speed, durability, and compliance.

The Challenge

Discovery & Assessment

Solution (Architecture & Implementation)

Cognetiks designed a secure, cloud-native archival platform using Amazon S3 as the core storage layer, combining S3 Standard, Glacier, and Deep Archive to optimize long-term retention costs. Amazon Athena was introduced to provide instant, SQL-based search directly on archived data—eliminating restoration delays entirely. AWS Glue managed metadata, while Grafana provided a self-service interface for business users to query and retrieve records easily.

Security and compliance were built into the foundation using IAM, KMS encryption, CloudTrail audit logs, AWS Config, and VPC isolation. Terraform was used for Infrastructure as Code, ensuring repeatable, secure deployments. The solution provided a financial-grade, CBN-aligned architecture without requiring AMML to maintain physical storage infrastructure.

Delivery & Implementation

The project began with the migration and classification of historical data, followed by configuring S3 buckets, Glacier vaults, and lifecycle rules. Athena workgroups and the Glue Data Catalog were set up to support structured queries. A Grafana dashboard was deployed so business teams could search archived records without IT support.

Validation included data integrity checks, performance benchmarking, encryption tests, access boundary reviews, and compliance audits. Cognetiks also delivered user training and clear operational guidelines for managing queries, retention, and reporting.

Optimization & Ongoing Management

The platform automatically tiers older data to cheaper storage classes, helping the bank maintain predictable long-term costs. CloudWatch dashboards and regular governance checks ensure visibility into retrieval, cost, and compliance. Quarterly reviews evaluate storage patterns, retention rules, and query usage for continuous cost and performance optimization. AWS Config policies ensure ongoing adherence to CBN-aligned governance requirements.

Measurable Business Impact

The solution improved data durability to 11 nines and reduced archival storage costs by over 90%. Retrieval time dropped from hours to under five seconds through Athena. IT workload decreased significantly, with business users now performing self-service searches directly through the dashboard. The bank achieved stable long-term storage costs, improved audit readiness, and eliminated the need for manual restoration processes—all while ensuring full compliance with CBN data protection requirements.

Customer Experience Improvement

Archived data became instantly searchable, empowering audit teams and business users to retrieve records without delays or IT involvement. The intuitive dashboard simplified access to years of historical data, and predictable cloud costs improved budget planning. Enhanced reliability, security, and governance strengthened trust internally and externally, while staff were freed from repetitive data retrieval tasks.

Why This Case Represents Innovation

AMML’s solution demonstrates how microfinance institutions can combine low-cost cloud storage with instant access, removing the traditional trade-off between archival cost and retrieval speed. By modernizing data governance, encryption, auditability, and user access, AMML now operates a durable, secure, and compliant archival environment powered fully by AWS. The engagement highlights Cognetiks’ ability to deliver end-to-end cloud modernization aligned with financial-sector standards.