Karina Myers, Centric Consulting’s Microsoft Cloud Platforms practice lead, recently shared her expertise in an article by Insurance Thought Leadership.
The article, “Insurers Must Resolve Cloud Adoption Challenges,” explores the hurdles insurance companies face when migrating to cloud environments and provides strategic solutions to overcome these challenges.
In the article, Myers outlines three primary challenges:
Security Concerns: Insurance companies handle vast amounts of personal data critical to their operations. Migrating to the cloud requires changes to infrastructure, networks, access controls, and firewalls, creating significant security challenges.
“Fortunately, cloud providers offer multilayered security measures, such as advanced network protections, continuous monitoring, end-to-end data encryption, secure backups, and rigid user permissions,” Myers explained, noting that cloud providers help insurance companies adhere to regulations.
Legacy System Integration: Insurance companies face challenges when integrating systems that use obsolete programming languages, unique architecture, or ancient data formats. Maintaining these legacy systems can waste time, impede digital transformation, and impair network performance.
The article shares that insurers report they spend approximately 70 percent of their IT budget on maintaining legacy systems, with per-policy IT costs 41 percent higher on legacy platforms. “Installing a modern system lowers maintenance costs by making legacy skills less necessary, fostering automation, cutting the time and energy businesses need to introduce new initiatives, and making IT and business teams more efficient,” she said.
Cost Management: Controlling migration costs while maximizing the return on investment remains a significant challenge. The article explores strategies for managing these costs effectively, from reserved instances to spot instances, while realizing the long-term benefits of cloud adoption.
Myers also emphasizes taking a strategic approach to cloud migration to achieve long-term benefits. Read the full article on insurancethoughtleadership.com.