Case Study

How Fiserv Orchestrates Automation at Scale Across a Global FinTech Network

Connecting automation silos, standardizing services, and building the governed foundation for agentic operations across 25,000 devices.

Challenge

Pockets of automation across Ansible, Rundeck, source of truth systems, and ticketing tools could not coordinate end-to-end. Maintaining N-2 software compliance across 25,000 multi-vendor devices was a never-ending paint job that consumed engineering capacity and slowed service delivery.

Solution

Itential as the orchestration layer across the existing automation ecosystem. Standardized SWIM workflows, integrated systems of record, and self-service execution that connect Ansible, Rundeck, ticketing, and inventory into one governed automation fabric.

Why Itential

Chosen to connect what Fiserv already built rather than replace it. Itential turned siloed automation into orchestrated services with governance, reuse, and scale, and now serves as the foundation for agentic operations with FlowAI.

The Challenge

When the Network Carries $2 Trillion, Automation Has to Scale With It

Fiserv is one of the largest payment processors in the world. In 2023 alone, its network handled more than 35 billion transactions worth $2.03 trillion. Network reliability is not a feature – it is the business.

To keep pace with that scale, Fiserv invested early and consistently in automation. The team trained engineers on Python and Ansible, built a job runner, stood up source of truth systems, adopted Ansible Automation Platform, and rolled out Rundeck inside the NOC. Each of those investments delivered real value in isolation. None of them could coordinate end-to-end.

Software Image Management made the gap impossible to ignore. To maintain N-2 compliance across roughly 25,000 multi-vendor devices, Fiserv had to keep upgrading continuously. By the time the team finished one pass across the estate, the start of the network was already drifting out of compliance again – like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Doing that work inside maintenance windows, with engineers driving each upgrade by hand or coordinating across disconnected tools, was burning five engineers across four to six maintenance windows on work that was never going to stop. The highest-leverage work wasn’t the device-level change, it was everything around it. Standards, source of truth synchronization, ticketing coordination, drift detection. That’s the work scripts and point automation tools are worst at, and it’s the work that separates a useful script from a production-grade service. The team needed orchestration.

We have a job runner. It’s not very good at coordinating the different jobs. It’s not very good at leveraging information from external sources natively. It’s not very good at consuming existing automation or APIs natively.

Michael Wynston

Director of Network Architecture & Automation, Fiserv

Why Itential

Why Fiserv Chose Itential

Fiserv did not want to replace the automation it had already built. The team wanted a platform that could orchestrate across everything in the environment, productize that work into governed services, and scale without forcing engineers to maintain glue code forever.

Itential met the criteria for connecting what was already there, standardizing how services get delivered, and giving operations the ability to consume automation without escalation.

Six Criteria Shaped the Decision

From orchestrating across existing tools to enabling self-service delivery, these were the requirements that drove Fiserv to standardize on Itential as the orchestration layer for the network.

Orchestrate Across Existing Investments

Itential could call Ansible, Ansible Automation Platform, Rundeck, ticketing, and source of truth systems as building blocks. Existing automation became reusable services instead of dead ends.

Standardize Services, Not Scripts

Fiserv needed orchestration that could turn scripts and playbooks into governed services with consistent inputs, outputs, and approvals. Standardization is what made self-service possible.

Lower the Barrier to Entry

Itential’s low-code workflow model lets engineers build sophisticated orchestrations while making them accessible to broader teams. Automation expertise no longer had to live in five people’s heads.

Coordinate Across Domains

Network, ticketing, inventory, and validation had to move together in one workflow. Itential made cross-domain coordination native instead of something each script had to invent.

Governance, Audit, & Consistency

Every workflow runs with policy enforcement, change controls, and a complete audit trail. For a network that carries trillions in transactions, governed by design was non-negotiable.

A Foundation Ready for Agentic Operations

Standardized services, normalized data, and event-driven execution gave Fiserv the governed substrate that AI agents need to act on infrastructure safely. The same platform that orchestrates today is what FlowAI agents act through tomorrow.

Itential will make us more money by increasing our velocity to deliver infrastructure. It will save us money, because to deliver more, I won’t need any significant increase in headcount. And it keeps me off the front page by allowing me to ensure infrastructure is consistently secured everywhere.

Michael Wynston

Director of Network Architecture & Automation, Fiserv

The combination took disconnected automation and turned it into a coordinated orchestration practice that scales with the business.

The Solution

From Automation Silos to Orchestrated Services

Fiserv adopted Itential as the orchestration layer across its automation ecosystem. Existing investments stayed in place. Ansible playbooks, AAP triggers, Rundeck jobs, ticketing flows, and source of truth lookups all became callable components of larger orchestrated services.

The most visible result is the company’s Software Image Management program. SWIM workflows now run continuously across the multi-vendor estate, pulling inventory and image data from systems of record, coordinating maintenance windows, executing upgrades through existing automation, validating post-change state, and updating tickets and source of truth without manual handoff. The Golden Gate Bridge still needs painting. Itential just runs the paint crew every weekend.

Orchestrated Workflows Running Across the Fiserv Network

With Itential as the orchestration foundation, Fiserv prioritized workflows that addressed the highest-volume, highest-risk operational work first.

Automated Software Image Management

Continuous SWIM orchestration across 25,000 multi-vendor devices upgrades 200 to 400 devices every weekend with no-touch automation, maintaining N-2 compliance without burning engineering cycles.

Self-Service Network Services

Standardized services let operations and adjacent teams consume automation directly through approved workflows, lowering the barrier to entry and accelerating delivery without compromising governance.

Cross-Domain Change Orchestration

Workflows coordinate Ansible, Itential Gateway, ticketing, and source of truth in a single sequence so changes complete with full validation, audit trail, and consistent execution across the estate.

Source of Truth Synchronization

Inventory, image, and configuration data stay synchronized with systems of record at execution time, so workflows operate on the real state of the network instead of stale snapshots.

Event-Driven Operations & AIOps Integration

Fiserv is extending orchestration into event-driven AIOps with Selector, where alerts trigger Itential workflows that collect evidence, enrich tickets, and prepare for closed-loop response.

Listen to Fiserv’s Story on Packet Pushers

The Outcome

Operational Outcomes That Scale With the Network

Moving from automation silos to orchestrated services changed how Fiserv runs its network. The outcomes show up every weekend and every quarter.

25,000

Continuous SWIM at Enterprise Scale

Itential orchestrates SWIM upgrades across 25,000 multi-vendor devices, with 200 to 400 devices updated every weekend through no-touch automation. The compliance treadmill became a scheduled, governed process.

5

Engineering Capacity Returned to the Business

Work that used to require five engineers across four to six maintenance windows now runs without manual intervention, freeing engineering to focus on new services and modernization rather than upgrade execution.

$2.03T

Velocity Without Headcount Growth

Fiserv’s network handled $2.03 trillion in transaction value across 35+ billion transactions in 2023 – orchestration scales with that volume without adding proportional headcount, supporting application innovation and customer growth from the same engineering footprint.

Every

Governed by Design Across a Multi-Vendor Estate

Every orchestrated change runs with policy enforcement, validation, and audit – so the network that carries trillions in transactions stays consistently secured and consistently compliant across a multi-vendor estate.

The Foundation for Agentic Operations

Standardized services, normalized data, and event-driven workflows are the governed substrate FlowAI agents need to act on infrastructure safely. Fiserv’s orchestration foundation is already AI-ready.