Does Huawei local cloud really fit for Saudi Insurance Companies?
A scenario of Huawei Cloud Infrastructure applied to insurance Infrastructure
As an IT manager in an insurance company, you search for infrastructure that ensures complying with strict data regulations, processing claims efficiently and managing cybersecurity attacks. So, when you find a hosting solution such as Huawei local cloud, you think first how it meets the insurance IT infrastructure. Let’s find the answer in this article.
1- Local Cloud Solution:
Compliance with Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) regulations requires that insurers handle and store data locally. Huawei recognized this crucial need in Saudi market and established its own cloud service hub Saudi Arabia. This local data center joins a growing trend of major cloud providers like Oracle, V2, and soon, Microsoft, setting up shop in the Kingdom.
2- Huawei IT Infrastructure:
IT infrastructure has the same components for all industries, but each industry has specific needs.
So let’s apply Huawei local cloud on it to see whether its products serve each component properly of them or not.
1) Insurance Cybersecurity:
Insurance is one of the industries that depend most on cybersecurity in the first place then performance.
Huawei recognizes the importance of cybersecurity in the insurance sector, so it has developed integrated solutions designed with data security as a core component.
1- Host Security Service
Huawei’s Host Security Service (HSS) detects and protects against threats like ransomware, mining, and intrusions, offering robust asset management, vulnerability fixing, baseline checks, antivirus, intrusion detection, and ransomware prevention.
Its key features include:
- Wide Applicability: Protects VMs, physical machines, and containers across multiple environments.
- Quick Alarm Reporting: Generates alarms for security issues within seconds.
- High Performance: Detects over 99% of known ransomware with minimal CPU usage.
- Cost Efficiency: Pay-per-use model, easy installation.
- Multiple Editions: Tailored for various security needs.
2- Cloud Firewall
Huawei Cloud’s Cloud Firewall (CFW) is a next-generation, cloud-native firewall providing elastic and flexible services, low deployment costs, and easy, efficient operations and maintenance.
Its key features include:
- Elastic and Flexible: Easy to deploy with low costs.
- Comprehensive Protection: Intrusion detection, antivirus, traffic protection.
- High Reliability: Cluster deployment for uninterrupted services.
- Integration: Works with multiple Huawei Cloud services for enhanced security management.
3- Web Application Firewall
Huawei’s Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects web applications and websites from common online attacks.
Its key features include:
- High Availability: 99.95% SLA, multi-region disaster recovery for non-stop protection.
- Elastic Scalability: Handles tens of millions of QPS for Handling massive traffic.
- Threat Detection: AI dual engines, OWASP top 10 threats for advanced AI-powered threat blocking.
- Custom Protection: Customizable policies and virtual patching for flexible security for unique needs.
- Compliance Assistance: Supports PCI DSS certification for meeting industry standards.
2) Insurance Computing:
Huawei computing solutions include:
1- Elastic Cloud Servers (ECS):
ECS provides scalable computing resources with various configurations. It can host advanced risk assessment tools that need strong processing power to analyze potential risks with new insurance policies or to adjust premiums based on new data. Its key features include:
- Scalable Resources: Adjust resources based on demand.
- Security: Ensures secure virtual environments.
- Diverse Configurations: Multiple instance types and configurations.
2- Auto Scaling:
During peak seasons, insurance claims increase rapidly. Huawei’s Auto Scaling automatically adjust the number of ECS instances based on real-time demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency without system overloads.
3- Cloud Container Engine (CCE) and Cloud Container Instance (CCI):
Insurance firms often need to quickly update their digital services, whether for deploying new types of insurance coverage or complying with updated regulations.
Here CCE and CCI allow for modular updates without downtime, so new financial products can be launched without affecting existing customer services.
Its key features include:
- Zero-Loss Networking: Ensures high-performance networking.
- High Availability: Multi-master nodes for HA and automatic failover.
- Advanced Scheduling: Intelligent and hybrid scheduling policies.
- Security: Includes network policies and Kata Containers for secure VMs.
3) Insurance Storage:
Huawei set up storage system as well as protection and recovery framework that addresses various levels of data loss scenarios, from individual file recovery to full-scale disaster recovery.
1- Scalable File Service (SFS):
Huawei Cloud’s Scalable File Service (SFS) provides high-performance NAS file storage with shared access across multiple cloud servers. It ensures high data durability and availability, supports various file system types, and is suitable for enterprise file sharing, web content management, backup storage, and more.
Its key features:
- High Durability: 99.99999999% data durability.
- High Efficiency: High IOPS, low latency, and high bandwidth.
- Ease of Use: Fully managed service, no hardware maintenance.
- Security: Comprehensive cloud security and VPC-based authentication.
- Flexible Configurations: Supports multiple performance and capacity tiers.
2- Cloud Backup and Recovery:
- In case of any IT infrastructure failure, SDRS enables quick recovery of critical data, minimizing disruption and loss.
It provides secure backup solutions for data stored on Huawei Cloud servers, disks, databases, desktops, and local environments. It ensures data protection against threats like viruses and accidental deletions with rapid backup and recovery processes.
Its key features include:
- Secure: Three-layer ransomware protection and cross-region replication.
- Efficient: Fast data backup and instant restore capabilities.
- Easy to Use: Unified management and policy-based automatic backups.
- Comprehensive: Supports various backup scenarios including cloud and on-premises.
3- Storage Disaster Recovery Service
Huawei’s Storage Disaster Recovery Service (SDRS) offers cross-AZ and cross-region disaster recovery for ECSs with minimal downtime. It ensures fast service recovery with an RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes, providing reliable, efficient, and cost-effective disaster recovery solutions.
Its key features include:
- Fast Recovery: RPO of seconds and RTO of minutes.
- Easy Management: One-click DR and DR drills.
- Cost-Effective: No need for DR equipment rooms; pay-per-use.
- Secure: Data consistency checks, two-way authentication, and encrypted transmission.
4) Insurance Networking:
Virtual Private Network (VPN):
VPNs secure data transmission between branch offices and the main data center, crucial when agents access the system remotely, ensuring client data is transmitted securely across networks.
5) Insurance Big Data:
1- Huawei Data Warehouse Service (DWS):
DWS is a big data solution deployed within Huawei Cloud. It stores, manages, and analyzes vast amounts of data collected from various sources like Claims Management Systems:, Financial Systems and Underwriting Systems.
Its key features include:
- High Scalability: Supports up to 2048 nodes and 10 PB data.
- High Performance: Fast query responses and concurrent processing.
- Real-Time Analysis: Integrates data lakes and supports real-time stream data.
- Compatibility: Supports multiple ecosystems like TD, Oracle, PG, MySQL.
2- Data Lake Insight (DLI):
DLI is a service for processing large volumes of unstructured data. This can include sensor data from physical stores (foot traffic, product interaction) and social media sentiment analysis.
Its key features include:
- Serverless Processing: No infrastructure management required.
- SQL Compatibility: Supports standard SQL for ease of use.
- High Performance: Fast query responses for large datasets.
- Cross-Source Analysis: Analyzes data from various sources without migration.
Understanding the capabilities of cloud providers like Huawei is essential as Saudi insurance companies adapt to market and regulatory demands. Huawei’s comprehensive solutions appear well-suited to meet the diverse needs of the insurance sector, suggesting that their infrastructure can significantly support insurance operations in Saudi Arabia.