Head of Cloud Shared Services at Länsförsäkringar

Could you tell a bit about your journey and experience in the cloud computing space?

I have an extensive background in the IT industry, having worked for various companies including Hewlett Packard and CGI, a major professional services consultancy company in Sweden and the Nordics. I held the position of managing director for different companies within the CGI group for nearly 10 years.

For over 15 years, I have been running my own business, initially focusing on IT security and access management. As the market shifted towards cloud technology, I ventured into the cloud business approximately 12 years ago, coinciding with the rise of cloud services. Throughout the years, my focus has evolved to providing professional services that assist companies in their digitalization journey using cloud solutions.

“Success in cloud security heavily relies on having a skilled and adequately staffed team. Continuous education and investment in employees are crucial in this regard”

Prior to joining Länsförsäkringar, I worked at Sopesteria, a prominent European professional services company, where I specialized in implementing cloud applications. I have been with Länsförsäkringar for one and a half years, where I assist them in their ambitious digitalization journey by leveraging cloud solutions.

What are some of the challenges that companies are facing today in the cloud space?

There are various areas where we face challenges in transitioning to the cloud. As an insurance and banking firm, we operate within a highly regulated environment governed by government and EU rules, including GDPR and regulations pertaining to private offices. Furthermore, we encounter challenges related to cloud offerings from both U.S. and foreign companies. Among these challenges, the most significant one at present revolves around compliance with GDP regulations in the context of cloud computing.

Within Länsförsäkringar, we face the challenge of enhancing our company-wide knowledge and understanding of cloud usage. It remains a fundamentally different approach to conducting and establishing business in the IT environment. Currently, we are heavily focused on educating various departments on cloud utilization through continuous deployment and integration.

In today's systems development landscape, there is a growing preference for automated workspaces. We aim to educate our development departments to take on operational responsibilities in the long run as part of our DevSecOps initiative, fostering a more agile operational framework. The benefits derived from these efforts are significant, as they enable us to accelerate time-to-market—a crucial factor for our success.

Could you talk about some of the new cloud initiatives?

Currently, we are in the process of constructing a hybrid cloud environment, utilizing Azure as our public cloud vendor. Simultaneously, we are developing cloud-like on-premises solutions because regulatory requirements prevent us from migrating everything to the cloud. Our objective is to seamlessly transfer IT workloads and services between the public and private cloud, which is currently underway.

Looking ahead, we plan to incorporate another public cloud vendor, expanding beyond hybrid cloud to a multi-cloud approach. Among our array of solutions, we rely on Office 365. We are also exploring the utilization of various infrastructure-as-a-service offerings in Azure. Additionally, we are actively investigating different business intelligence solutions.

What are some of the solutions you are implementing that benefits your customers?

As a customer-centric company, we prioritize providing a comprehensive experience by offering a diverse range of products to create a simplified interface for our customers. We offer the same mobile applications for banking, insurance, pet insurance, car insurance, or other services.

Our goal is to establish a cohesive platform that enables customers to effortlessly navigate through our offerings. To achieve this, we remain at the forefront of technology, consistently building innovative applications. We shape our development process by monitoring how our customers engage with our systems and understanding their information needs. Swiftly responding to market demands and overcoming business challenges are key priorities for us.

Could you elaborate on how you establish better security along with the cloud services?

The finance industry is subject to numerous laws and regulations. Consequently, we must establish robust IT security measures to ensure compliance and maintain our cloud presence. Encryption serves as a fundamental aspect of our security framework, securing all forms of data transmission, including traffic within and outside our network.

Additionally, we employ advanced technologies to handle various encryption scenarios and related tasks. We are in the process of implementing our own monitoring system to closely monitor cloud activity. Notably, we have observed a significant disparity when comparing source applications like Office 365 with our security policies.

Within Office 365, it is challenging to obtain comprehensive visibility into security events and potential threats. In contrast, cloud solutions offer greater transparency, allowing us to monitor application activities, infrastructure, and network layers comprehensively.

What advice do you have for other CXOs and senior leaders in the industry?

Ensuring robust security measures requires significant effort. Success in cloud security heavily relies on having a skilled and adequately staffed team with the necessary expertise in place. Continuous education and investment in employees are crucial in this regard. While outsourcing certain aspects to cloud vendors is possible, when it comes to security, it is important to maintain internal capabilities as well.