Total cost of ownership: comparing deployment models
1
On-Premises
Own hardware, own staff
2
Managed In-Country Hosted
Vendor-managed, local data centre
3
Global Hyperscaler
AWS, Azure, GCP
Upfront capital investment ▲ High: servers and hardware ▼ Low: no hardware required ▼ None
Annual operating cost ▲ High: staff, power, maintenance ▶ Medium: licence and hosting fee ▶ Medium to High: scales with usage
Internal IT staff required ✗ Yes: sysadmin and infra team needed ✓ No: vendor manages infrastructure ✓ No: vendor manages infrastructure
Data residency compliance ✓ Automatic: data stays on-site ✓ Automatic: local data centre ✗ At risk: no Botswana data centres
Software licences and support ▲ High: perpetual licence plus annual support fees (typically 18-22% of licence value) ▶ Medium: licence and support bundled into hosting agreement and SLA ▶ Medium to High: subscription-based, support tiers charged separately
Scale with NDB growth ▲ Costly: requires new hardware ✓ Flexible: adjust capacity via SLA ✓ Flexible: cloud elasticity
Fit for NDB at this stage ✗ Poor: skills thin, high capex ★ Best fit: recommended ▶ Future option: regulatory clarity needed
Conclusion: At NDB's current scale and capability level, Managed In-Country Hosted delivers the lowest total cost of ownership while meeting regulatory data residency requirements and reducing internal infrastructure burden. The architecture is designed to remain portable should a future hyperscaler decision be made. The following slide applies this conclusion across each system layer. →
G: 1
Recommended deployment model by system
System Recommended Model Data Residency IP Ownership Rationale
CX Platform Customer experience layer Build and Cloud Deploy In-country NDB owns Custom build aligned to NDB brand and digital-first model. Cloud-deployed for scalability. NDB retains full IP and can license to agency business or subsidiaries.
ERP Finance, HR, procurement Buy, Managed In-Country In-country data centre Vendor Buy a market-ready ERP deployed on managed in-country infrastructure. Removes on-prem overhead while satisfying data residency requirements. Retains optionality to move to a hyperscaler when regulation permits.
Core Banking System Lending, deposits, accounts Buy, In-Country (Principles) ⚠ In-country data centre Vendor Managed in-country hosting preferred. Firm platform recommendation requires the commercial business case and regional strategy to be confirmed first. See disclaimer below.
Credit Management System Collections, recoveries, credit lifecycle Buy, Managed In-Country In-country Vendor Specialist credit management platform required. Vendor selection via structured RFP process. No vendor commitment at this stage.
Integration and Middleware API gateway, service bus Managed In-Country In-country Vendor / NDB config Essential in Stage 1. Enables CX to decouple from systems of record. Managed in-country service bus and API gateway keeps all data flows within regulatory bounds.
Data and Analytics Reporting, BI, AI/ML Managed In-Country In-country NDB data, Vendor platform Enterprise data platform hosted in-country. DPO designated as governance stakeholder for data classification and access policy as systems are onboarded.
Disclaimer, Core Banking System: A firm platform recommendation requires the commercial banking business case to be completed first. The choice is directly linked to NDB's regional expansion footprint including target countries, regulatory environments, and transaction volumes. The managed in-country direction above is a principle; final confirmation follows the business case.
G: 2