Hybrid Cloud for industrial insurers

Cloud applications are becoming increasingly popular, and both business and private users benefit from easy online access to these web services. This not only overcomes any restrictions imposed by an individual location, but also means data can be accessed and retrieved via any device. Another inherent advantage is the ease of scalability, so when more storage space is required for customer data or internal documents, it is quite easy to adjust the service accordingly. This process takes very little time and allows an IT department to respond to any changes immediately. For professional users, the ability to provide customers with prompt service is of great benefit. However, the cloud model also has some disadvantages. In particular, a cloud solution is not always recommended for the management of data when data protection issues must also be considered. This is because Internet transmission and data storage on external servers may contravene data security regulations. However, a hybrid cloud solution will make these difficulties a thing of the past.

Hybrid cloud: take advantage of a mix of different cloud models

From a customer data protection perspective, it makes a lot of sense to set up a private cloud, since all information will then remain inside your own company. However, this reduces some of the other benefits – high scalability and rapid service provision, for example – which are only available via a public cloud managed by an external provider. That’s why many companies use two different clouds: a private cloud for privacy-critical applications, and a public cloud for all other tasks. This strategy is known as a multi-cloud solution. Normally, these different services exist in parallel without any interaction taking place between them. However, a hybrid cloud system goes one step further by combining both alternatives within a single portal. This enables the creation of uniform structures that promote efficient data management and thus ultimately benefit the customer.

Survey shows an increasing acceptance of the hybrid cloud

A recent survey by NTT Communications reveals that the use of a blend of different cloud systems is becoming increasingly popular, with 84% of respondents already using a multi-cloud approach. Some of the reasons given for adopting this strategy include high agility, low cost and fast deployment. The use of hybrid clouds is particularly popular, and 63% of participants in the study said they had either already developed a blueprint for using the hybrid cloud in their own business, or had at least one pilot project under way. Respondents said that security and data protection issues were the most important reasons prompting the integration of a private cloud. The advantages mentioned above mean that, despite having been very reluctant to use cloud services thus far, many banks and insurance companies are increasingly considering the hybrid cloud alternative.

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This article was first published on LinkedIn.