Do Insurers Understand The Cloud’s Real Value?

Grazed from InsuranceTech. Author: Kathy Burger.

Is cloud computing most valuable to insurers as a tactic for reducing infrastructure costs, or can it help them be more competitive and innovative? The answer probably is both. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that using cloud, virtualization and as-a-service models strictly for efficiency underestimates the potential of this disruptive force. Insurance & Technology has examined the ways carriers are enhancing their abilities to get to market faster with unique and profitable products, services and processes via the cloud and other hosted computing models.

One thing is clear: Cloud computing can no longer be considered an emerging technology or unproven platform. According to Gartner, this year the public cloud services market will grow 19.6% to total $109 billion worldwide. Business-process services and business-process-as-a-service are the largest segment, accounting for 77% of the total market, while infrastructure-a-a-service is the fastest-growing segment of the public cloud-services market and is expected to grow 45.4% in 2012, Gartner reports…

In a recent SMA study of cloud adoption trends in insurance, 35% of participants said the cloud "provides companies with the flexibility needed to respond quickly to changing needs." This despite lingering concerns about security risks, SMA partner Karen Furtado told attendees at the analyst firm’s recent conference. Innovative carriers recognize that the differentiators come from "how you do computing, not where you do it," she says…

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