CIO Communication: Financial Data Platform - IT Strategy Alignment
Subject
Financial Data Platform - IT Resource & Security Approval Request
To: CIO
From
Data Platform Team
Date
January 2026
Purpose
Requesting your endorsement of our proposed data platform architecture and approval for IT resources (infrastructure, security, operations) to support financial transaction analytics and regulatory compliance.
Enterprise IT Alignment
Architecture Fit
Proposed Stack
- Storage: AWS S3 (object storage, already in use)
- Compute: AWS Glue (Spark Job, Version 4.0) - PySpark implementation recommended for production, aligns with cloud-first strategy
- Analytics: Amazon Athena (serverless SQL, no infrastructure to manage)
- Orchestration: AWS Step Functions + EventBridge (event-driven, serverless)
Alignment with Enterprise Standards
- Cloud-first (AWS, no on-premise infrastructure)
- Serverless architecture (reduces operational overhead)
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, version-controlled)
- CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions, automated deployments)
Vendor & Contract Considerations
- No new vendors: Using existing AWS services
- Cost model: Pay-per-use (serverless), scales with usage
- Contract impact: None (within existing AWS agreement)
Security & Compliance
Security Posture
- Data Encryption:
- TLS in transit (all API calls)
- S3 encryption at rest: SSE-S3 (AES256) for standard buckets; SSE-KMS with customer-managed keys (CMK) for sensitive buckets (gold, quarantine)
- Customer-managed keys (KMS) implemented with automatic rotation for sensitive financial data
- Access Control:
- IAM roles with least-privilege permissions
- Prefix-scoped access (Bronze/Silver/Gold layers isolated)
- No public access (S3 bucket policies enforce)
- Audit logs via CloudTrail
- Data Classification:
- Financial transaction data (sensitive)
- PII handling: Minimal in raw layer, mask/tokenize in curated layers
- Restricted access: Raw/quarantine layers limited to Platform + Compliance teams
Compliance Alignment
- Regulatory Requirements: Immutable audit trail, reproducible reporting
- Data Retention: Configurable lifecycle policies (S3)
- Audit Capability: Full lineage tracking, run_id isolation, CloudWatch logs
- Change Management: Schema versioning, approval workflows
Compliance risk assessment: Low risk — architecture designed for auditability.
Operational Considerations
Supportability
Infrastructure Management
- Serverless: No servers to patch/maintain
- IaC: Terraform-managed, version-controlled infrastructure
- Monitoring: CloudWatch metrics + alarms (automated alerting)
- Incident Response: Defined escalation paths, on-call rotation
Operational Overhead
- Low: Serverless architecture reduces operational burden
- Estimated: 0.5 FTE total for ongoing operations (0.2 FTE Data Engineer + 0.1 FTE DevOps + 0.1 FTE Infrastructure + 0.1 FTE Operations) vs. 1.0 FTE for traditional infrastructure
SLA & Availability
- Data Freshness: Same-day processing (batch, not real-time)
- Availability: AWS S3 SLA (99.99% availability)
- Recovery: Immutable Bronze layer enables full reprocessing
- Disaster Recovery: S3 cross-region replication (if required)
Change Management
Governance Model
- Schema changes require Domain/Business approval
- Infrastructure changes via Terraform + CI/CD pipeline
- Deployment: Automated testing, safe rollback capability
Change Impact
- Low risk: Run isolation prevents data corruption
- Rollback: Point
_LATEST.jsonto previous run (instant rollback)
Cost of Ownership
Infrastructure Costs (Monthly)
| Component | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Storage | ~$1.15 | Raw + Processed + Quarantine (lifecycle policies reduce long-term cost) |
| Glue Compute | ~$26.40 | Pay-per-run (serverless, Spark Job), scales with data volume |
| Athena Queries | ~$0.25 | Pay-per-TB-scanned (partitioning minimizes scans) |
| Step Functions | ~$0.01 | Orchestration (daily runs) |
| CloudWatch | Free tier | Monitoring + logs (within free tier limits) |
| Total | ~$27.81/month | For 1.5M transactions/month, scales with usage |
Total Cost of Ownership (Year 1)
- Infrastructure:
$334/year ($27.81/month × 12 months) - Engineering (build): [To be calculated: 2 FTE × 3 months] (one-time, 3 months)
- Operations: [To be calculated: 0.5 FTE × 12 months] (0.2 FTE Data Engineer + 0.1 FTE DevOps + 0.1 FTE Infrastructure + 0.1 FTE Operations)
- Total Year 1: [Infrastructure ~$334 + Engineering + Operations]
Note: Engineering and operations costs depend on team salary rates. Infrastructure costs are fixed at ~$334/year for current scale (1.5M transactions/month).
Cost Optimization
- S3 lifecycle policies (move old data to Infrequent Access)
- Partition pruning (reduces Athena scan costs)
- Serverless architecture (no idle costs)
IT Resource Requirements
Infrastructure Team
- Terraform Deployment: 1 engineer, 1 week (initial setup)
- Ongoing: 0.1 FTE for infrastructure updates
Security Team
- Security Review: 1 security engineer, 1 week (architecture review)
- IAM Policy Review: 0.5 week
- Ongoing: Quarterly security audits
Operations Team
- Monitoring Setup: 1 engineer, 1 week (CloudWatch dashboards)
- On-call Rotation: 0.1 FTE (shared with Data Platform team)
- Incident Response: Defined escalation paths
Risk Assessment
| Risk Category | Risk Level | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Security Breach | Low | IAM least-privilege, encryption, audit logs |
| Data Loss | Low | Immutable Bronze layer, S3 versioning |
| Compliance Violation | Low | Audit trail, reproducible reporting |
| Operational Failure | Medium | Monitoring, automated alerts, run isolation |
| Cost Overrun | Low | Serverless (pay-per-use), cost monitoring |
Overall risk: Low — Architecture follows AWS best practices; serverless reduces operational risk.
Approval Request
We request your approval for
- Architecture Endorsement: Approve AWS serverless architecture approach
- Security Approval: Approve security controls and access model
- Resource Allocation:
- Infrastructure team: 1 week initial + 0.1 FTE ongoing
- Security team: 1.5 weeks initial + quarterly reviews
- Operations team: 1 week initial + 0.1 FTE ongoing
- Budget Approval: Approve
$27.81/month ($334/year) infrastructure costs for current scale
Next Steps
If approved:
- Week 1: Security architecture review
- Week 2: Infrastructure provisioning (Terraform)
- Week 3: Monitoring + alerting setup
- Ongoing: Weekly operations review
Your decision needed by
February 1, 2026 - To enable Q1 2026 build phase kickoff
Questions or Concerns
Please reach out to discuss:
- Security controls in more detail
- Cost optimization strategies
- Integration with existing IT systems
- Compliance requirements
Best regards, [Name] Data Engineering + IT Architecture
Attachments
Related Documentation
Task 5 Documentation
- Communication Overview - Task 5 documentation overview
- Extended Communications - Extended communication templates
- Technical Reference - Complete technical documentation
Task Documentation
- Data Lake Architecture - Complete architecture design
- CI/CD Workflow - CI/CD design
- Terraform Configuration - Infrastructure as code
Technical Documentation
- AWS Services Analysis - Service selection rationale