Microservices architecture has emerged as a technology trend to watch; some have gone as far as to say that microservices architecture is “SOA done right.” The reality, however, is much more nuanced.
It’s true that service-oriented architecture failed to deliver in many areas, but it’s also clear that software development underwent some radical changes in its move toward Agile, DevOps, and decoupled, autonomous teams.
Where Did Traditional SOA Go Wrong?
“Dear password, we’ve been together for over 28 years now. As a matter of fact, you were my first authentication mode. You made sense at one point in my life when I needed something that simply just worked. Now, you aren’t enough for me ; I need more — something you can’t offer. It’s time for me to move on and leave you in my past. We grew up together since telnet; we worked perfectly together with Secure Shell (SSH), even though at the time there were better alternatives, such as keys. But now, I’ve sat back for too long now and watched others abuse you, and I love you too much to watch people treat you like you’re nothing but password123 or letmein.”
- Love always, Alissa Knight
Although spending patterns for insurers of all sizes appear unchanged on the surface, there is some variation. OpEx vs. CapEx spending, in particular, is largely consistent with previous years, but a growing investment in cloud deployments is leading to a slight increase in OpEx spending. This reflects two shifts emerging in IT budgets: spending that was once allocated toward core systems is often being directed at digital, data, and security efforts and that more insurers are devoting resources to cloud-based solutions.
Insurers are embracing the benefits of cloud – elasticity, increased stability, and rapid deployment, to name a few – and over 70% of carriers use some cloud today.
Even so, the transition to cloud inevitably changes an organization’s daily business. As carriers ready their organizations for a cloud-enabled future, they’ll need to consider the potential impact of cloud migration across a few areas:
Over the past two years, Novarica has profiled over 150 InsureTech startups. In that time frame, only two have failed. This is not to imply that all startups in this space are immune to failure—but for the time being, industry enthusiasm for this space has not slowed down.
I recently attended InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas where I had the chance to see firsthand the excitement and influence of new technologies and startups in the insurance industry. Some trends stood out as worthy of insurer attention for 2019.