Building Guidewire's Future in the Cloud

Summary

Guidewire, a leading property and casualty insurance platform, has undergone a significant cloud transformation over the past five years. The company, which started with ClaimCenter and evolved to include PolicyCenter and billing, now serves 400 global customers. Facing challenges in team coordination and technology adaptation, Guidewire rebuilt its organization and embraced agile methodologies, Kubernetes, and containerization. This strategic shift has enabled faster product delivery, innovative insurance solutions, and a robust, scalable cloud platform that enhances customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Guidewire is the leading global platform for property and casualty insurance, with a history starting from the early 2000s with its product ClaimCenter.
• 📈 The company has evolved significantly, expanding its offerings to include PolicyCenter and billing, and now serves around 400 customers worldwide.
• ☁️ Guidewire's mission to transition to the cloud was a major challenge and opportunity, setting them apart from many other companies in the industry.
• 🤝 The speaker's joining of Guidewire was influenced by the chance to work with Diego and validate their prior experience in building cloud platforms.
• 🔍 The speaker's initial engagement with Guidewire involved giving a talk on agile to the development team, highlighting the company's ongoing transformation.
• 🏢 Guidewire's deep understanding of its market allows it to anticipate and innovate for the needs of its customers in the property and casualty insurance space.
• 🔄 The company faced organizational challenges with a scattered team that needed to be unified to operate more effectively under a single vision.
• 🧐 The speaker conducted extensive interviews in their first 90 days to understand the company's challenges and rebuilt the organization from the ground up.
• 💡 Guidewire's cloud transformation involved not just technology but also a cultural shift, affecting how the company does business and its overall company DNA.
• 🔄 The transition to the cloud required a change in mindset from periodic releases to continuous delivery of value to customers every two weeks.
• 🛠️ Technical challenges included dealing with a monolithic application built in the early 2000s and adapting it for a cloud-native environment using Kubernetes and containerization.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of Guidewire's business?

Guidewire primarily serves the property and casualty insurance market worldwide, providing a deep understanding of this specific B2B business and its technological needs.

What was the initial product that Guidewire started with?

Guidewire started with a product on claim called ClaimCenter, which later evolved to include PolicyCenter and billing solutions.

How has Guidewire's approach to technology evolved over time?

Guidewire has evolved from its initial product offerings to embracing cloud technologies, aiming to transform its platform to the cloud, which is a significant and challenging transition in the industry.

What was the motivation for Guidewire's shift towards cloud technology?

The motivation was to innovate and stay ahead in the market by transforming their platform to the cloud, a move that not many companies have been able to accomplish.

What challenges did Guidewire face during its cloud transformation?

Challenges included increasing talent density in cloud technologies, building discipline in software development for the cloud, and managing the transition from a monolithic application to a cloud-native architecture.

How did Guidewire address the issue of a scattered team during the transformation?

The company conducted extensive interviews with around 200 people across the organization to understand the challenges and then rebuilt the organization from the ground up to operate as one team.

What was the strategy for Guidewire's cloud platform in relation to its existing product, InsuranceSuite?

The strategy was to anchor the cloud transition on top of the existing InsuranceSuite product, leveraging AWS infrastructure, without rebuilding from scratch.

How did Guidewire manage the cultural shift required for the cloud transformation?

The company focused on continuous delivery of value to customers, changing the mindset from traditional release cycles to a faster cadence that aligns with agile practices.

What role did data play in Guidewire's cloud transformation?

Data became a critical component, with the new platform enabling the aggregation and analysis of data across all customers while maintaining regulatory and security compliance.

What was the significance of the first customer going live on Guidewire's cloud platform?

It marked a significant milestone, validating the success of the cloud platform and the team's efforts in building and transitioning to the new system.

How has Guidewire's approach to product development changed with the cloud platform?

Product development has shifted towards continuous delivery, enabling the release of new features and updates to customers every two weeks, as opposed to the previous two-year release cycle.

What is the concept of hybrid tenancy as implemented by Guidewire?

Hybrid tenancy in Guidewire's context refers to running a single-tenanted core insurance application on a multi-tenanted platform, which interfaces with other multi-tenanted third-party ecosystem players and partners.

What is ATMOS, and how does it fit into Guidewire's cloud strategy?

ATMOS is Guidewire's own platform as a service, built on Kubernetes, which amalgamates the best of available technologies for the insurance domain within the Guidewire context.

How has the cloud transformation impacted Guidewire's product management team?

The product management team has had to adapt to new procedures and processes for continuous delivery, ensuring that value is delivered every sprint and that customers can continuously uptake new features and products.

What are some of the future technologies and strategies Guidewire is considering for its platform?

Guidewire is looking into technologies such as AI, ML, Golang, Python, and data analytics, as well as exploring more intent-based systems for easier management of clusters and deployments.

How does Guidewire maintain a balance between stability and innovation?

Guidewire maintains stability by deeply understanding its market and not constantly pivoting, while fostering a culture of innovation that encourages data-driven changes for improvement's sake.