VMware NSX Data Center for a globally active Swiss insurance group

KEY CHALLENGES • Enable the business to be faster to market with new, digital services • Improve IT efficiency with simplified management and greater automation • Consolidate four data centers into two SOLUTION The solution is based on VMware NSX® Data Center which helps create a SDDC for Helvetia, delivering networking and security entirely in software. IMPACT • Simplified control of complex network • Less resource spent on maintenance of hardware, more on developing new services • High availability between two clusters ensures business continuity Helvetia is a Swiss insurance provider. By engaging with VMware, the business has strengthened its network security and addressed business continuity concerns. Today, Helvetia is more automated, more efficient and better able to focus on new business opportunities. Over 160 years, Helvetia Insurance has grown into a successful, international insurance group. With headquarters in St. Gallen and Basel, it is Switzerland's leading all-lines insurer. Helvetia’s success is founded on the diversification between life and non-life business, and as well as a strong home market, it has profitable market positions in other European countries, with above-average growth in Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain. In the Specialty Markets segment, Helvetia offers bespoke specialty lines cover and reinsurance solutions in selected niches worldwide. It provides its five million plus customer-base with professional advice on all insurance matters, as well as contacts for various sectors under a single roof. More than 7,500 employees work daily to arrive at simple solutions. Helvetia’s brand promise, "simple. clear. helvetia" applies to customers, shareholders and employees alike. The insurance sector is perceived as complicated. Helvetia wants to make the world of insurance simple to access and easier to understand. Challenge Helvetia is one of Switzerland’s largest insurance providers. It is also an increasingly international business. It already has operations across Europe and plans for further growth. Staying still is not an option. Increased competition from new entrants, digital services, and data revolution have created a compelling case for digital transformation in the insurance sector. If traditional insurers expect to remain competitive, they must become more agile, more efficient, more customer-centric, and more sophisticated in the way they use data and analytics. These qualities are reflected in Helvetia’s ‘20.20’ growth strategy. The business wants digital transformation to make customer services faster, easier and more personal. Achieving high customer satisfaction and trust is one of Helvetia’s primary goals. The company is committed to delivering high quality, secure services for customers and its employees. Having a secure IT environment is a critical part of Helvetia’s operations. “The insurance business is based on trust,” says Andreas Hagin, Lead Engineer, IT Infrastructure, Helvetia. “Focusing on customers is firmly anchored in our values and we set very high standards for ourselves and our IT security.” For Helvetia IT, one challenge is being able to handle a rapidly growing volume of work with the same number of employees. That means minimizing the number of manual tasks required of team members, reducing the need to retrain and redeploy teams, and finding new ways to deliver services as efficiently as possible. Digesting the 2014 acquisition of rivals Nationale Suisse provided an ideal opportunity for the company to rethink its IT approach. The acquisition required the consolidation of four data centers into two. “We didn’t have enough space to consolidate into two, so we started to look for new premises in Switzerland,” says Hagin. “We started with a blank sheet of paper.” Action Helvetia’s virtualization journey began with VMware in 2003. Hagin saw the consolidation project as the right time to start micro-segmentation of its data centers: “Security is becoming more and more important. Micro-segmentation means we have better control of our servers. This is key in the insurance market.” The VMware solution, part of the Enterprise Level Agreement, is based on VMware NSX® Data Center. This helps create a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) for Helvetia, delivering networking and security entirely in software, abstracted from the underlying physical infrastructure, as well as increased functionality. In addition, VMware vCloud Suite® is an enterprise-ready hybrid cloud software that brings together the industry-leading VMware vSphere® Hypervisor 6.0 and 6.5, VMware vRealize® Suite cloud management platform and VMware vRealize® Network Insight™. vRealize Suite provides developer-friendly infrastructure (supporting VMs and containers) and a common approach to hybrid and multicloud and works together with NSX to dramatically reduce the delivery time of VMs.