Underwriting insurance is tough enough; most agencies would prefer not to wade into the fog of IT, especially given just how obtuse the tech world has become.
For those insurance brokers making the shift from an in-house solution to the cloud, getting the language right is Job One. Familiarizing yourself with some basic terminology won't turn you into a tech expert, but it can provide a grounding in the fundamentals. That, in turn, can make agents and brokers wiser IT consumers, and perhaps a more even savvier users.
With that in mind, here are a few cloud terms and concepts for insurance agents and brokers.
|Public cloud vs. private cloud vs. hybrid cloud
As the cloud has expanded, it more or less subdivided into the following three segments:
Private cloud service is, proprietary or internal to one organization;
Public cloud service providers make applications and storage available to any business over the Internet, typically for a monthly usage fee;
Hybrid cloud providers blend both services.
These days, the hybrid cloud is ubiquitous. The majority of organizations rely on servers and computers, and some data resides on various desktops; some is stored with Apple or Dropbox or Microsoft, and some organizations have embraced Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Software as a Service (SaaS). I'll get into that in more detail below.
The smart question for insurance agents, brokers and businesses isn't: Should I opt for the hybrid cloud, the public cloud, or a private cloud?
The question that people in the insurance business should be asking is: Strategically, what's best for my organization?
When you frame the query in that manner, you can determine where to place your computing power, and you begin to gain control over the dynamic.
Want to reduce costs? Increase efficiencies? Achieve some other objective? Go back to basics. First, decide what your metrics are and how they serve the business. Then, select the technology.
|SaaS, IaaS and PaaS
At its most basic level, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables insurance agencies to move all or part of their compute environment to the cloud — that is, off premises — and make the migration without modifying any of their existing applications. The market is now awash in IaaS tools and technologies, empowering insurance brokers who may lack traditional computing resources to benefit from robust products and platforms.
In the mushrooming world of the cloud, IaaS is distinguished from two other "as a service" models: Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).
SaaS is essentially a software rental model, where individual applications are hosted — again, off-premises — for a monthly subscription fee. All users need is a web browser and they're good to go.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is somewhat more ambitious while remaining steadfastly user- (and application-) specific. PaaS is ideal for insurance agencies writing applications that are specific to their business. They don't need to build and maintain the infrastructure usually required to develop and launch an app. PaaS makes it possible, even easy, to develop applications rapidly with little technical know-how — applications that aren't intended to be sold but that run on a single, captive platform.
There's just one catch: If the platform for which the app was written changes or ceases to exist, users are out of luck. With PaaS, internal development teams may need to ride the IT rollercoaster, forever investing and reinvesting in platform-specific application development.
The question that people in the insurance business should be asking is: Strategically, what technologies are best for my organization? (Photo: iStock)
|The mnemonics of information security
For insurance brokers operating in today's cyber minefield, security is process, not an event. It's a mindset, not a matter of checking boxes and moving on, as one might on a claim form.
Related: Protecting against cyber risks
Sound security planning requires assessing threats, choosing tools to meet those threats, implementing those tools, assessing the effectiveness of the tools implemented — and repeat.
They might consider such measures as clustered firewalls, multi-factor authentication — that is, 'layered passwords' — intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), which go above and beyond traditional firewalls.
Increasingly, threats are emanating from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on hosting providers and from massive volumetric attacks. These attacks are something new and particularly troubling, and no single firewall can stop them, especially when the attacks originate from connected devices.
Related: 6 ways cybersecurity changed in 2017
This summery served as more of a tech teaser than a proper primer. But it does provide insurance agents and brokers with a sampling of the jargon that typically separates the IT realm from the world of policies and premiums. The more you know, the more you're in a position to bring those worlds together, for the betterment of your agency and for your clients.
Adam Stern is founder and CEO of Infinitely Virtual, a Los Angeles-based cloud service provider for clients in the insurance space. He can be reached by sending email to [email protected].
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