Through internal cloud computing, computing applications, platforms and infrastructure are delivered as a bundle of services to users within a private business. One of the greatest benefits that internal cloud-based computing provides insurers is the ability to create a virtual server easily and deploy business-user-configurable cloud software solutions quickly. Virtualization allows that software or hardware to run more than one application at a time, so as a result, insurers can launch new products and services faster than ever before.

Insurers also can develop an external cloud computing integration model or Software as a Service (SaaS). Instead of buying servers and procuring space in the data center, cloud computing increases business value because it can be turned on the next day. It removes some upfront costs that can be risky to insurers by allowing for pay-per-use that enables the agility and flexibility that insurers want. One of the biggest selling points for external cloud computing is the potential to reduce IT support costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the SaaS provider.

How can you tell if your organization is ready for cloud-based technology solutions? It's important that insurers rationalize applications and create their own cloud-based strategies and capabilities that allow for taking advantage of private cloud within an organization, public cloud and hybrid cloud models. Unified computing systems (UCS) and servers unify computing, networking, management, virtualization and storage access into a single integrated architecture. This unique architecture enables end-to-end server visibility, management, and control in both bare metal and virtual environments, and facilitates the move to cloud computing and IT-as-a-service with fabric-based infrastructure.