How Ping An Bank’s Starlink Platform Earned Industry‑Leading DevOps Efficiency Rating

On December 24, the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT) opened the 2021 GOLF+ IT New Governance Leadership Forum, focusing on "balancing governance and efficiency" and "XOPS innovation". The forum announced the first batch evaluation results of the "DevOps General Efficiency Measurement Model – System Platform and Tools". Ping An Bank’s Starlink DevOps platform received an "industry promotion level" assessment, indicating its DevOps efficiency is among the domestic leaders.

Evaluation Details

The assessment was conducted by CAICT. The institute’s Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute director presented awards to participating enterprises.

Interview with Ping An Bank

Q: Please introduce your company and the project you evaluated. A: Ping An Bank, a modern commercial bank, places technology at the core of its transformation strategy, focusing on digital, ecosystem, and platform banking. Its unified DevOps platform, Starlink, links the entire software delivery chain—from idea generation to requirement design, development, testing, release, operation, monitoring, and feedback. The Kepler module provides comprehensive data collection, metric definition, analysis, and visualization, supporting fine‑grained R&D efficiency management across the bank.

Q: How does the evaluation result feel? A: The assessment marks the first batch of DevOps standard evaluations we participated in. We have already passed system‑tool standards and security‑risk management, both as pioneering cases. Achieving the "industry promotion level" confirms that Kepler’s product development is on the right track and positions us at the forefront in several areas, motivating continuous iteration and innovation.

Q: Why did you decide to join the evaluation? A: As the organization grows, the demand for fine‑grained management increases. Kepler provides the bank’s R&D system with efficiency measurement and management support. The comprehensive CAICT evaluation offers valuable guidance, allowing us to validate our work and promote improvement through benchmarking with industry peers.

Q: What benefits has the evaluation brought? A: The authoritative recognition from CAICT has motivated the team, validated the platform’s value, helped us review and optimize processes, and established a benchmark for industry best practices in efficiency measurement and fine‑grained management.

Q: What are the distinctive features of the evaluated IT system? A: The Kepler efficiency module unifies performance management for the bank’s R&D system, serving developers, finance, security, decision‑makers, and business units. It solves data collection challenges from multiple sources, provides consistent metrics, and delivers a comprehensive data value output system covering digital dashboards, mobile apps, base data management, iteration, quality, personal dashboards, data middle‑platform, and project management reports.

Q: Was the evaluation process smooth? A: The evaluation was time‑critical with 161 items. Some items, such as metric scenario support and visualization dashboards, did not meet the highest standards due to limited time, but they are planned for future development. The CAICT experts provided valuable feedback for subsequent improvements.

Q: What are the biggest takeaways from this year’s DevOps implementation? A: Starlink now covers 100% of teams and 99% of applications bank‑wide, with Kepler’s adoption expanding across the organization. Frequent user communication has yielded valuable feedback, driving platform enhancements.

Q: What are the future plans? A: Next year, Starlink will focus on enhancing fine‑grained management, with Kepler playing a more critical role. The bank aims to deepen data‑driven R&D efficiency improvements.

Q: How do you view the future of DevOps? A: DevOps addresses enduring challenges of value delivery. As business scenarios evolve and new technologies emerge, practices such as Kubernetes integration, cloud‑native architectures, AI in DevOps, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, and DevSecOps will continue to enrich the DevOps ecosystem.

DevOps General Efficiency Measurement Model

The model, led by CAICT and co‑created by over 30 enterprises including Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, and Huawei, defines requirements for system platforms and tools across data management, metric analysis, and visualization. It covers agile development, continuous delivery, technical operations, cost management, and organizational management, comprising 17 modules and 164 items, classified into three levels: Innovation Breakthrough (Level 1), Industry Promotion (Level 2), and Excellence Leadership (Level 3), with Level 3 being the highest.

For inquiries about the evaluation, contact CAICT (Liu Zhaowei) at 130 2106 0029 (WeChat) or [email protected].