Phoenix Insurance Company


Case Studies

 

About Phoenix Insurance Company

Phoenix Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance providers in Israel, offering a wide range of products and services, with a key focus on health, life and auto insurance, pensions and savings plans. Established in 1949, the company has been publicly traded since 1978, and has a long history of providing quality insurance solutions with a focus on personalized service and product innovation. Its unique product offerings include digital app-based insurance for young and infrequent drivers, and app-based international travel insurance services. With headquarters in Tel Aviv, Phoenix Insurance Company is continually advancing its reliable and comprehensive insurance coverage and investment strategies to meet the unique needs of its clients.

Summary

Phoenix Insurance Company wanted to undergo a cloud transformation within its IT department and was looking for a partner to achieve that. Phoenix’s main mission was to increase productivity and efficiency from top to bottom, which means shortening the development time, accelerating innovation, and leveraging Phoenix’s data to enable greater cooperation between different departments, effective collaboration on workloads, and gaining better control over their operations on the cloud. 


The first part of the migration process was to migrate the marketing website to an AWS infrastructure. AllCloud was chosen as a partner to help lay the foundation for Phoenix’s AWS operations, providing a holistic approach that could achieve the right balance between fast development and solid cloud security. Supported by AllCloud Engage managed services, Phoenix leverages AllCloud’s ready-made Next Generation Landing Zone for FSI and Kubernetes container blueprints to build and deploy their AWS environments quickly and accurately, enabling agile cloud operations to support growth and scale.

Challenge

Phoenix Insurance Company sought to empower its AWS developers, boosting their independence and agility for experimentation, seamless collaboration on varied workloads, and faster time to market. Friction around security bottlenecks also needed to be minimized, while maintaining a more robust and secure cloud system than the on-prem alternative.

The company had previously undertaken a lift-and-shift migration. However, while the environment was cloud-based, it remained a direct replica of the on-premise design and mindset. The team continued using the same tools and approach, missing the opportunity to fully harness the power of AWS infrastructure and unlock its potential for the business.

Beyond migrating its marketing website, Phoenix aimed to prioritize true cloud transformation initiatives within the IT department—initiatives positioned to be a game-changer for the business. In pursuit of this journey, the company sought an experienced partner, ultimately finding a reliable ally in AllCloud.

Solution 

The first goal of Phoenix was to migrate the marketing website to an AWS infrastructure.

The Phoenix team understood that AllCloud’s Engage managed services was a good place to start, as it would provide the depth of experience and knowledge of what it means to ‘‘live and operate” in the cloud – which was lacking in their in-house capabilities.

Together with the AllCloud team, Phoenix Insurance Company initially focused on migrating the marketing website and building a landing zone with AllCloud’s Next Generation Landing Zone (NGLZ) for FSI Blueprint. An out-of-the-box, best-practice solution, the NGLZ for FSI blueprint was a key factor in achieving an operational environment in rapid time while ensuring it was built with the right guardrails. It also enabled the separation of security zones, which was vital to maintaining uninterrupted security throughout the architecting process. 

The next solution leveraged by the Phoenix team was AllCloud’s EKS EaaS (environment as a service) – blueprint-based, ready-made guidelines for lightning-fast provision and operation of multiple EKS environments for different workloads and needs. 

These blueprints provide a standardized, secure, and reusable solution for the Phoenix developers, enabling them to advance very quickly, without needing to consult the security team for project approval each time. This provides immense value from both an operational and time-to-market perspective.

The ultimate aim was to partner with AllCloud to gain experience, allowing the in-house team to independently migrate other portals while ensuring high security and improving collaboration among developer teams. With AllCloud automated blueprint solutions and 24/7 support via AllCloud Engage, Phoenix is currently in the process of cloud migration of its subsidiaries and its mobile app. While the Phoenix team is undertaking most of the work independently, it relies on help and guidance from AllCloud on the system architecture side.

Results

The decision to partner with AllCloud was the right one. AllCloud’s proven success with large financial enterprises and significant experience with security-oriented enterprises was a big draw for Phoenix. AllCloud’s home-grown automated solutions and blueprints currently provide substantial value, with the anticipation of yielding even greater benefits as the company expands its AWS activity. Furthermore, Phoenix knows it can rely on AllCloud’s Engage managed services for day-to-day operations and 24/7 always-on security management.

The impact of AllCloud on Phoenix’s cloud activity is already clear:

  • Enhanced security operations: The depth of AllCloud’s security expertise is palpable every day. Beyond delivering alerts, there is real ongoing improvement of the security posture.
  • Team empowerment: At the same time, the Phoenix team is empowered to take ownership and operate independently where possible, to improve the cloud infrastructure and applications. They also enjoy peace of mind, knowing they can rely on AllCloud’s holistic support 24/7 and whenever needed, to face difficult questions and to stay on the right path.
  • Increased velocity: The speed of cloud development is significantly improved; what once would take 6 months can now be achieved in just days.
  • Reinforcing the in-house team: The engagement with AllCloud provides vital knowledge and confidence to Phoenix’s team. It is a powerful synergy that enables Phoenix to extend beyond current capabilities, advance its cloud operations, and deliver the maximum from its AWS potential.
  • Focus on innovation: With the AWS environment now built, Phoenix can focus its efforts and resources on innovation and is currently running multiple strategic initiatives to advance the business and stay at the forefront of the industry.

“AllCloud’s blueprint-based automated solutions bring our ‘Move and Improve’ vision to life. The AllCloud team has gone beyond mere cloud management, empowering Phoenix to take charge, encouraging our ongoing efforts to learn, develop, and progress, fostering a genuine collaboration that has transformed our cloud journey into a beneficial experience.” – Elad Nisser, Head of Cloud Transformation, Phoenix Insurance Company