The Challenge
In order to more closely align products to customers, improve compliance and drive value from its data, this insurance company sought to optimize the use of its existing AWS cloud to improve the way data is collected and calculated for its life insurance policies.
The company’s data was being gathered, processed and analyzed in multiple silos, making it difficult to gain an accurate view of the overall risk and compliance posture – and as the number of data consumers grew within the organization, it was becoming increasingly problematic to control access.
The Solution
Cloudreach established a solid partnership with the customer by proactively sharing best practices and emerging industry views. Working together, we continually seek out opportunities to improve the organization’s AWS posture and maximize the value delivered by the cloud.
Cloudreach first conducted an architectural review of the existing AWS environment and gained an understanding of how the organization was consuming the cloud.
Cloudreach then developed an AWS Data Lake proof of concept – a central repository for multiple data sources – to combine sources in a strategic way to gain insights. The solution includes technologies such as: S3-based Data Lake, AWS Glue for ETL services, AWS Lambda functions and Elasticsearch.
Over the course of the Data Lake proof of concept project, the insurance company became more familiar with Cloudreach’s skills and capabilities, and just five months later engaged us to provide Managed Services to its 500+ server EC2 fleet that supports the entire business. Cloudreach’s full suite of Managed Services provides 24×7 ongoing operational support including:
- Troubleshooting and break/fix engineering
- Backups, patching and recovery
- Security optimization
- SQL server database management
As part of our Managed Services offering, Cloudreach is building in Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS), which includes the testing of Disaster Recovery functionality multiple times per year.
The Outcome
This AWS Data Lake model is breaking new ground for the insurance industry, going beyond traditional models by including genomic and hyper-individualized data collection. As the proof of concept is productionalized, it will enable the company to execute at scale and provide highly relevant insurance products with accurate pricing.
By replacing its former siloed solution, the organization is able to:
- Ingest data from multiple, disparate sources and formats, and classify and tag them to facilitate rapid search and discovery of information.
- Coordinate an interdisciplinary approach to satisfy information compliance requirements.
- Manage information risk while optimizing information value.
Cloudreach’s Managed Services is providing a proactive approach to continuous improvement, allowing the company to leverage new and existing capabilities in a secure way.
About the Customer
This well-established US insurance company offers a full range of insurance products for individuals and employers.
