Barclays claims 90 percent software cost savings with open source drive

Barclays has said it has reduced its IT spending for the development of new software and applications by 90 percent after moving to an internal private cloud environment and using open source Linux software.

The Sunday Times reported Barclays is saving billions by using open source software, in what was deemed a "snub" to leading vendors like Microsoft and Oracle.

However, a spokesperson for Barclays told V3 it was continuing to work with existing suppliers, but it was also taking advantage of the benefits of alternative IT systems to improve efficiencies across its business.

"We've been making significant savings in our technology platform by doing a lot of the work in house to develop and launch our own applications rapidly," he said.

"It means we can write new applications once and then develop them using an open source model, rather than re-writing them again for legacy systems."

The work has been driven by the chief operating officer of Barclays Retail, Shaygan Kheradpir, who has also pushed the development of key tools, such as its mobile Pingit payment services and Banking app, as well as rolling out 8,500 iPads to branch staff.

"Because information is hosted on our own secure internal cloud information that provides access to our legacy systems, whether you're a mortgage or credit customer for example, it can still be accessed. This was not possible beforehand," the company representative added.

The move appear to be working as to date the firm's Banking app and Pingit app have been downloaded over 1.3 million times each across the UK.

Currently, though, the apps are not available for Windows Phone users. Barclays was unable to comment if it was working to develop for the platform at the time of publication.