Hazelcast IMDG & the Insurance Industry
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
- Europe
Country
- Italy
- United States
Product
- Hazelcast IMDG
- Hazelcast 3.6
- Hot Restart Store
- High-density Memory Store (HdMs)
Tech Stack
- Java
- JCache APIs
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Apache jclouds
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Digital Expertise
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Quality Assurance
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
USAA is a major US-based insurance provider that offers a range of services including home, auto, and life insurance, as well as consumer banking and financial services. The company is known for its commitment to serving military members and their families. USAA has a strong focus on providing high-quality customer service and innovative solutions to meet the needs of its clients. The company has been in operation for several decades and has built a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness. USAA's customer base includes millions of members, and the company continually seeks to improve its services through technological advancements and infrastructure modernization.
The Challenge
USAA was looking to modernize their web infrastructure to help grow their online business. The previous generation Websphere-based infrastructure at USAA did not provide a unified, fault-tolerant, scalable foundation for their customer-facing applications. Rather, each application required its own authentication and data management, and this was seen as inefficient due to redundant information management. The new infrastructure based on Hazelcast utilizes an In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG) architecture for shared access to numerous services and functions. With easy-to-scale Java infrastructure, application developers can have fast access to cached data and employ a single authentication strategy for all customer-facing applications, from banking to insurance. Another important capability of the new infrastructure at USAA is synchronization among data centers. The previous generation utilized redundant production and QA clusters at two data centers that are relatively closely located. For better data compliance and assurance, USAA is introducing a third data center that is very distant from the existing two and requires that the synchronization and data integrity be well managed. Hazelcast Enterprise includes critical support for WAN Replication for this exact scenario. Fault tolerance is critical in any large-scale solution, and USAA was using a single-copy caching architecture. A key feature of an IMDG is the automatic and seamless backup and restore capability. Hazelcast is a superior technology for data sharding, partitioning, and backup in a distributed environment, providing the IT organization the assurance that data is not lost should a single node or even a data center fail.
The Solution
The new infrastructure at USAA is based on Hazelcast's In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG) architecture, which provides shared access to numerous services and functions. This architecture allows for easy scaling and fast access to cached data, enabling application developers to employ a single authentication strategy for all customer-facing applications, from banking to insurance. Hazelcast's IMDG offers critical in-memory capabilities via standard Java and JCache APIs, and it is compatible with any JVM and OS. One of the key features of the new infrastructure is its ability to synchronize data among multiple data centers. USAA is introducing a third data center that is distant from the existing two, requiring robust synchronization and data integrity management. Hazelcast Enterprise includes support for WAN Replication, which is essential for this scenario. Additionally, the new infrastructure provides fault tolerance through automatic and seamless backup and restore capabilities. Hazelcast's technology for data sharding, partitioning, and backup ensures that data is not lost even if a single node or an entire data center fails. This level of reliability and scalability is crucial for USAA's operations, which involve managing a large volume of customer data and transactions.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Hospital Inventory Management
The hospital supply chain team is responsible for ensuring that the right medical supplies are readily available to clinicians when and where needed, and to do so in the most efficient manner possible. However, many of the systems and processes in use at the cancer center for supply chain management were not best suited to support these goals. Barcoding technology, a commonly used method for inventory management of medical supplies, is labor intensive, time consuming, does not provide real-time visibility into inventory levels and can be prone to error. Consequently, the lack of accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels across multiple supply rooms in multiple hospital facilities creates additional inefficiency in the system causing over-ordering, hoarding, and wasted supplies. Other sources of waste and cost were also identified as candidates for improvement. Existing systems and processes did not provide adequate security for high-cost inventory within the hospital, which was another driver of cost. A lack of visibility into expiration dates for supplies resulted in supplies being wasted due to past expiry dates. Storage of supplies was also a key consideration given the location of the cancer center’s facilities in a dense urban setting, where space is always at a premium. In order to address the challenges outlined above, the hospital sought a solution that would provide real-time inventory information with high levels of accuracy, reduce the level of manual effort required and enable data driven decision making to ensure that the right supplies were readily available to clinicians in the right location at the right time.
Case Study
Gas Pipeline Monitoring System for Hospitals
This system integrator focuses on providing centralized gas pipeline monitoring systems for hospitals. The service they provide makes it possible for hospitals to reduce both maintenance and labor costs. Since hospitals may not have an existing network suitable for this type of system, GPRS communication provides an easy and ready-to-use solution for remote, distributed monitoring systems System Requirements - GPRS communication - Seamless connection with SCADA software - Simple, front-end control capability - Expandable I/O channels - Combine AI, DI, and DO channels
Case Study
Driving Digital Transformations for Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices
Diagnostic devices play a vital role in helping to improve healthcare delivery. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s medical decisions are made with support from in vitrodiagnostics (IVD) solutions, such as those provided by Roche Diagnostics, an industry leader. As the demand for medical diagnostic services grows rapidly in hospitals and clinics across China, so does the market for IVD solutions. In addition, the typically high cost of these diagnostic devices means that comprehensive post-sales services are needed. Wanteed to improve three portions of thr IVD:1. Remotely monitor and manage IVD devices as fixed assets.2. Optimizing device availability with predictive maintenance.3. Recommending the best IVD solution for a customer’s needs.
Case Study
HaemoCloud Global Blood Management System
1) Deliver a connected digital product system to protect and increase the differentiated value of Haemonetics blood and plasma solutions. 2) Improve patient outcomes by increasing the efficiency of blood supply flows. 3) Navigate and satisfy a complex web of global regulatory compliance requirements. 4) Reduce costly and labor-intensive maintenance procedures.
Case Study
Harnessing real-time data to give a holistic picture of patient health
Every day, vast quantities of data are collected about patients as they pass through health service organizations—from operational data such as treatment history and medications to physiological data captured by medical devices. The insights hidden within this treasure trove of data can be used to support more personalized treatments, more accurate diagnosis and more advanced preparative care. But since the information is generated faster than most organizations can consume it, unlocking the power of this big data can be a struggle. This type of predictive approach not only improves patient care—it also helps to reduce costs, because in the healthcare industry, prevention is almost always more cost-effective than treatment. However, collecting, analyzing and presenting these data-streams in a way that clinicians can easily understand can pose a significant technical challenge.