>>From around the globe, it's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent 2020 sponsored by Intel and AWS. >>We continue our coverage here in the cube of AWS reinvent 2020, and we're now joined by guru Vasudeva, who was the chief technology officer at nationwide insurance and a good route. Good afternoon to you. Thanks for joining us here on the cube. Good news. Um, big announcement for you folks in terms of AWS and, uh, making that connection that you have even deeper and even broader going with AWS now is your preferred cloud provider. Um, let's just talk about, about making that kind of a commitment first off on your end. What were some of those key factors, those drivers that led you to say, okay, this is where we really want to sink our resources. >>Yeah. You know, uh, our journey with this that started almost, uh, two years ago, uh, and, uh, what we, uh, were looking for, uh, was a partner, uh, who is leading edge in the cloud capabilities, as well as the ones that are creating new services. Uh, and obviously AWS is definitely, uh, a great partner to do that. And then, uh, we also found that, uh, they have this, uh, AWS next program enterprise next program. So we, uh, found that to be pretty attractive as well, because it's not just about migrating the applications, but also modernizing them, uh, in a waiting. So they are, we're going to really give us not only the technical capability, but also access to talent and best practices. So we really entered into this partnership, uh, with AWS, uh, to do achieve all of the above. >>You know, there's, there's this, um, as you know, it's very popular or, or, um, uh, in Vogue, obviously it's talk about digital transformations, right? There are, women's going undergoing that is complete metamorphosis, uh, of your, uh, your VIT structure. But, but this is where you are. Uh, and you were already kind of in the, in the throws of this or in the midst of this, in terms of accelerating that process and refining that process, uh, what is AWS now bringing to your table and what did you want, what did you need from them to, to get you going a little bit quicker, maybe in the direction you were already going? >>Yeah. You know, one of the, um, like I will give you two answers. One on the technology side, they have got a huge array of services available in AI machine learning, data and analytics. So they're constantly, you know, weighting those things. So it makes it easier for us to really stitch together solutions that, uh, gives a better experience for our customers or for agents or our financial advisors, right. On the process side. Uh, what they really brought to about brought to bear is their own internal methodology for innovation. Uh, so they, uh, we've been able to really partner with our business partners and AWS to apply that methodology, uh, to really see, can we really do those kinds of things in an insurance company, right. And we have found that methodology to be of equal value. Hmm. >>You know, um, I mean, the fact is your portfolio is so broad or, or, or, you know, your arsenal, if you will, 2000 plus applications right here, are you guys up and running and you're moving a little less than half of them to AWS. I mean, this is a huge undertaking and the idea, obviously that to, to maintain business operations as usual. So tell us about that tight rope act. I mean, how, how do you manage that and keep business going, keep operations still humming. And in fact, you're already looking for new kind of efficiencies and new processes that make even a little sharper, a little leaner. Yeah. >>You know, uh, the approach that we took is it's a methodology that I've used with many of our, uh, transformations that I've had the opportunity to lead here at nationwide, uh, where we use a very methodical, repeatable process and we call it, we started with diagnostics. And then once you look at the diagnostics, you build a plan and then you execute the plan and then you go back and see, did it really give you the results and tweak the loop? Right. So our diagnostics methodology starts with looking at an existing application for us, for example, our claims system, uh, or our policy admin system, right. These are very critical systems for a company like us, and you can adjust, you know, migrate them and hope that it'll work out. Right. So instead we did a very methodical approach of diagnosing and saying, technologically architecture wise, what needs to change? >>What are the opportunities for optimizing them instead of just migrate them likewise, as it can really optimize it and migrated at the same time, how about security? What are the different things that we need to do on security wise? Right. And then last but not least is money, right. What does it cost for us on prime and can it cost cheaper? Uh, and if we really apply all of these different lovers, can we make it cheaper in the cloud? So we did all of those four different elements, and we found that methodology to be instrumental in our success story. This year, we migrated our claim system. We migrated our commercial lines policy, uh, admin system, or a personalized policy admin system, our nationwide.com and all of our financial services front ends. So it's a huge, like it's like the heart and soul of the company, uh, and they have, uh, gone extremely well. And we really attribute that to the methodical. I'm looking at all these dimensions. I don't know how you slept. >>I mean, th that, that is a, that's a full slate. Um, and to go back to the four points you were talking about earlier about, you know, the, the, the, the gains you got the last one that caught my eye or one that caught my attention, there was about the, the, uh, bottom line, the fact that you reduced costs that, that you did save money. So it is possible, uh, that this cloud migration, again, this is, uh, on a, uh, Archie overarching level. You can make this migration and go through this enormous transformation and, and still, >>So, yeah, add to the bottom line. Yeah. So the, uh, um, you know, many people these days, you read in the articles, Oh, well, cloud migration not necessarily saves you money, or that's not the real reason to do it. I didn't really want to accept that as an answer. Instead, what we really said is we want it to be better, faster, cheaper, all of the above, right. So we have challenged ourselves to say, um, what would it cost if we were to really keep it on prem and can, what changes we need to make in order to get the efficiency? For example, our claim system, if we were to migrate it like for lying, it would have cost us 25% more to run in the cloud. We said, no, we're going to tweak how we have architected, uh, how many, uh, how much storage we need, what kind of things we provision? Uh, so we changed the architecture and the underpinning and the engineering, and we were able to find that our 20% savings, right. So if you think about it, that's like a 45% swing. Uh, if we had not done the diagnostics after the migration, I would've been like, Oh my God, it actually costs us more money. And that we couldn't really do what what's been the >>Th the big gain in terms of, you talked about claims. So obviously it heart and soul of your company, insurance policies, both on the commercial and the residential side, or the, you know, the personal user. Um, >>I mean, what, what's been the biggest, >>Uh, impact, if you will, in terms of your core business, and then introducing these new technologies and these new efficiencies into the process, >>You know, uh, this year, uh, for us, uh, if you take a look at property and casualty companies like, uh, you know, insurance companies has been a very eventful year, not only with COVID, but also with all the other events that happened with the fires and the various tornadoes and so on. So when, uh, we have more claim volume, we can actually take our, uh, environment up and down seamlessly, right? We can add more capacity, very seamlessly. So that's a beast, uh, premise, if you will, off of the cloud is that you can actually consume more and you don't have to really wait for adding additional capacity. That part has actually worked out really well. And the reverse is true as well. We've been able to actually reduce capacity when we don't need it right on the base level. And on the more innovation level, we've been able to tap into AI machine learning kind of capabilities and stitch together, new experiences in our commercial line space, uh, to deliver, uh, new types of insights, new types of, uh, um, uh, solutions for our business partners. So we have been very pleased with how we've been able to stitch together solutions by kind of tapping into the various services that AWS bonds. >>Yeah, you were, you've been talking about, uh, all these, uh, tremendous innovations in terms of how you go about your business and how you do your business. And certainly you're realizing great benefit and gain from that. What about the other side, the, the, your customers, you know, millions of customers that you have, and as you said, experiencing a number of challenges this year to say the least, but at the end of the day, what has been the bottom line or what is going to be the bottom line for them, >>For them? Um, uh, our, uh, kind of, uh, kind of vision is completely transforming the customer experience that we provide them, uh, by digital capabilities, right? So they should be able to get to any answer that they want, whether it's beyond their cell phone or their computer, and to do that, uh, to provide that kind of service. Uh, I think these kinds of technologies actually enables us to really deliver that kind of a digital transformation. >>What about the security side of all this? Uh, I know that's part of your, of your concern too. I mean, it's certainly an area that that is receiving, uh, and understandably a lot of attention these days in terms of, uh, providing more secure solutions and, and, uh, making sure that there's customer data, which is so precious is protected. Um, in terms of all this activity that you're doing, you've got to put in that layer of security on top of that, right. Which is paramount to your success these days as a company, what kind of focus have you maybe reconfigured in that respect now with regard to security and your customers and, and your operational security too? >>Yeah. So, you know, in the diagnostics methodology that I talked about, security is one of those dimensions that we looked at, how do we secure the information on prem versus in the cloud? Uh, they're not like for, like, we need to apply different techniques, sometimes different technology. Uh, so we built that in from the beginning. And then, uh, the great thing is, you know, we have also learned a lot by working with Amazon, uh, about, uh, how do they do it? In-house right. I mean, they obviously run the biggest if you will, online, um, shopping capability out there and how did they do it? So that's the other kind of access to talent. That's been really helpful. Uh, and we look at this constantly, it says something, it's something that's evolving as new threat actors come on, board or new techniques of attack comes on board with constantly evaluating and making sure that we are fine tuning that security, whether it's on-prem or in the cloud. >>What of your headlights hit it now, when you look down the road, uh, I know you're, you're not done with this by any means. Uh, uh, I certainly understand that, but in terms of the next 12 to 18 months, uh, what kind of progress do you want to make and where do you think that you're gonna, you're going to have to where you want to make it the most? >>So on the, uh, on the efficiency side, uh, we've got a pretty big goal, uh, to reduce our expenses, uh, by hundreds of millions of dollars, we spent well over a billion dollars on technology every year, uh, and our cloud migration and optimization is definitely a key lever that we are, you know, uh, pulling. And so for me, uh, B have a target of, um, uh, applications that we wanted to, uh, one of migrate to the cloud and we will be done with 32% of them by the end of this year. And now they're 30 to 32% next year. So we've got ways to go, but in the next couple of years, we would be well on our way to really migrating what we want to migrate to the cloud. So that's definitely a big focus area while delivering savings on the innovation. Go ahead, please go ahead. Yeah. On the innovation side, uh, I think there is so much more to be done, whether it be internet of things or providing new, uh, offerings for our customer, for our agents, for financial advisors. Uh, so there are so many new things that we can do. And now that we've got a repeatable pattern for migration, our energy is going to really shift towards those more innovation, more new and additional experiences. That's where our energy is going to really shift. >>Well, you took a big step today, certainly with the announcement. I know the AWS partnership is one that you put a lot of value on. It certainly has been successful for you, and we wish you all the continued success as well as you, uh, head on into 2021. Thank you for joining us here today. Thanks John.

>>From around the globe, it's the cube with digital coverage of AWS reinvent 2020 sponsored by Intel and AWS. >>We continue our coverage here in the cube of AWS reinvent 2020, and we're now joined by guru Vasudeva, who was the chief technology officer at nationwide insurance and a good route. Good afternoon to you. Thanks for joining us here on the cube. Good news. Um, big announcement for you folks in terms of AWS and, uh, making that connection that you have even deeper and even broader going with AWS now is your preferred cloud provider. Um, let's just talk about, about making that kind of a commitment first off on your end. What were some of those key factors, those drivers that led you to say, okay, this is where we really want to sink our resources. >>Yeah. You know, uh, our journey with this that started almost, uh, two years ago, uh, and, uh, what we, uh, were looking for, uh, was a partner, uh, who is leading edge in the cloud capabilities, as well as the ones that are creating new services. Uh, and obviously AWS is definitely, uh, a great partner to do that. And then, uh, we also found that, uh, they have this, uh, AWS next program enterprise next program. So we, uh, found that to be pretty attractive as well, because it's not just about migrating the applications, but also modernizing them, uh, in a waiting. So they are, we're going to really give us not only the technical capability, but also access to talent and best practices. So we really entered into this partnership, uh, with AWS, uh, to do achieve all of the above. >>You know, there's, there's this, um, as you know, it's very popular or, or, um, uh, in Vogue, obviously it's talk about digital transformations, right? There are, women's going undergoing that is complete metamorphosis, uh, of your, uh, your VIT structure. But, but this is where you are. Uh, and you were already kind of in the, in the throws of this or in the midst of this, in terms of accelerating that process and refining that process, uh, what is AWS now bringing to your table and what did you want, what did you need from them to, to get you going a little bit quicker, maybe in the direction you were already going? >>Yeah. You know, one of the, um, like I will give you two answers. One on the technology side, they have got a huge array of services available in AI machine learning, data and analytics. So they're constantly, you know, weighting those things. So it makes it easier for us to really stitch together solutions that, uh, gives a better experience for our customers or for agents or our financial advisors, right. On the process side. Uh, what they really brought to about brought to bear is their own internal methodology for innovation. Uh, so they, uh, we've been able to really partner with our business partners and AWS to apply that methodology, uh, to really see, can we really do those kinds of things in an insurance company, right. And we have found that methodology to be of equal value. Hmm. >>You know, um, I mean, the fact is your portfolio is so broad or, or, or, you know, your arsenal, if you will, 2000 plus applications right here, are you guys up and running and you're moving a little less than half of them to AWS. I mean, this is a huge undertaking and the idea, obviously that to, to maintain business operations as usual. So tell us about that tight rope act. I mean, how, how do you manage that and keep business going, keep operations still humming. And in fact, you're already looking for new kind of efficiencies and new processes that make even a little sharper, a little leaner. Yeah. >>You know, uh, the approach that we took is it's a methodology that I've used with many of our, uh, transformations that I've had the opportunity to lead here at nationwide, uh, where we use a very methodical, repeatable process and we call it, we started with diagnostics. And then once you look at the diagnostics, you build a plan and then you execute the plan and then you go back and see, did it really give you the results and tweak the loop? Right. So our diagnostics methodology starts with looking at an existing application for us, for example, our claims system, uh, or our policy admin system, right. These are very critical systems for a company like us, and you can adjust, you know, migrate them and hope that it'll work out. Right. So instead we did a very methodical approach of diagnosing and saying, technologically architecture wise, what needs to change? >>What are the opportunities for optimizing them instead of just migrate them likewise, as it can really optimize it and migrated at the same time, how about security? What are the different things that we need to do on security wise? Right. And then last but not least is money, right. What does it cost for us on prime and can it cost cheaper? Uh, and if we really apply all of these different lovers, can we make it cheaper in the cloud? So we did all of those four different elements, and we found that methodology to be instrumental in our success story. This year, we migrated our claim system. We migrated our commercial lines policy, uh, admin system, or a personalized policy admin system, our nationwide.com and all of our financial services front ends. So it's a huge, like it's like the heart and soul of the company, uh, and they have, uh, gone extremely well. And we really attribute that to the methodical. I'm looking at all these dimensions. I don't know how you slept. >>I mean, th that, that is a, that's a full slate. Um, and to go back to the four points you were talking about earlier about, you know, the, the, the, the gains you got the last one that caught my eye or one that caught my attention, there was about the, the, uh, bottom line, the fact that you reduced costs that, that you did save money. So it is possible, uh, that this cloud migration, again, this is, uh, on a, uh, Archie overarching level. You can make this migration and go through this enormous transformation and, and still, >>So, yeah, add to the bottom line. Yeah. So the, uh, um, you know, many people these days, you read in the articles, Oh, well, cloud migration not necessarily saves you money, or that's not the real reason to do it. I didn't really want to accept that as an answer. Instead, what we really said is we want it to be better, faster, cheaper, all of the above, right. So we have challenged ourselves to say, um, what would it cost if we were to really keep it on prem and can, what changes we need to make in order to get the efficiency? For example, our claim system, if we were to migrate it like for lying, it would have cost us 25% more to run in the cloud. We said, no, we're going to tweak how we have architected, uh, how many, uh, how much storage we need, what kind of things we provision? Uh, so we changed the architecture and the underpinning and the engineering, and we were able to find that our 20% savings, right. So if you think about it, that's like a 45% swing. Uh, if we had not done the diagnostics after the migration, I would've been like, Oh my God, it actually costs us more money. And that we couldn't really do what what's been the >>Th the big gain in terms of, you talked about claims. So obviously it heart and soul of your company, insurance policies, both on the commercial and the residential side, or the, you know, the personal user. Um, >>I mean, what, what's been the biggest, >>Uh, impact, if you will, in terms of your core business, and then introducing these new technologies and these new efficiencies into the process, >>You know, uh, this year, uh, for us, uh, if you take a look at property and casualty companies like, uh, you know, insurance companies has been a very eventful year, not only with COVID, but also with all the other events that happened with the fires and the various tornadoes and so on. So when, uh, we have more claim volume, we can actually take our, uh, environment up and down seamlessly, right? We can add more capacity, very seamlessly. So that's a beast, uh, premise, if you will, off of the cloud is that you can actually consume more and you don't have to really wait for adding additional capacity. That part has actually worked out really well. And the reverse is true as well. We've been able to actually reduce capacity when we don't need it right on the base level. And on the more innovation level, we've been able to tap into AI machine learning kind of capabilities and stitch together, new experiences in our commercial line space, uh, to deliver, uh, new types of insights, new types of, uh, um, uh, solutions for our business partners. So we have been very pleased with how we've been able to stitch together solutions by kind of tapping into the various services that AWS bonds. >>Yeah, you were, you've been talking about, uh, all these, uh, tremendous innovations in terms of how you go about your business and how you do your business. And certainly you're realizing great benefit and gain from that. What about the other side, the, the, your customers, you know, millions of customers that you have, and as you said, experiencing a number of challenges this year to say the least, but at the end of the day, what has been the bottom line or what is going to be the bottom line for them, >>For them? Um, uh, our, uh, kind of, uh, kind of vision is completely transforming the customer experience that we provide them, uh, by digital capabilities, right? So they should be able to get to any answer that they want, whether it's beyond their cell phone or their computer, and to do that, uh, to provide that kind of service. Uh, I think these kinds of technologies actually enables us to really deliver that kind of a digital transformation. >>What about the security side of all this? Uh, I know that's part of your, of your concern too. I mean, it's certainly an area that that is receiving, uh, and understandably a lot of attention these days in terms of, uh, providing more secure solutions and, and, uh, making sure that there's customer data, which is so precious is protected. Um, in terms of all this activity that you're doing, you've got to put in that layer of security on top of that, right. Which is paramount to your success these days as a company, what kind of focus have you maybe reconfigured in that respect now with regard to security and your customers and, and your operational security too? >>Yeah. So, you know, in the diagnostics methodology that I talked about, security is one of those dimensions that we looked at, how do we secure the information on prem versus in the cloud? Uh, they're not like for, like, we need to apply different techniques, sometimes different technology. Uh, so we built that in from the beginning. And then, uh, the great thing is, you know, we have also learned a lot by working with Amazon, uh, about, uh, how do they do it? In-house right. I mean, they obviously run the biggest if you will, online, um, shopping capability out there and how did they do it? So that's the other kind of access to talent. That's been really helpful. Uh, and we look at this constantly, it says something, it's something that's evolving as new threat actors come on, board or new techniques of attack comes on board with constantly evaluating and making sure that we are fine tuning that security, whether it's on-prem or in the cloud. >>What of your headlights hit it now, when you look down the road, uh, I know you're, you're not done with this by any means. Uh, uh, I certainly understand that, but in terms of the next 12 to 18 months, uh, what kind of progress do you want to make and where do you think that you're gonna, you're going to have to where you want to make it the most? >>So on the, uh, on the efficiency side, uh, we've got a pretty big goal, uh, to reduce our expenses, uh, by hundreds of millions of dollars, we spent well over a billion dollars on technology every year, uh, and our cloud migration and optimization is definitely a key lever that we are, you know, uh, pulling. And so for me, uh, B have a target of, um, uh, applications that we wanted to, uh, one of migrate to the cloud and we will be done with 32% of them by the end of this year. And now they're 30 to 32% next year. So we've got ways to go, but in the next couple of years, we would be well on our way to really migrating what we want to migrate to the cloud. So that's definitely a big focus area while delivering savings on the innovation. Go ahead, please go ahead. Yeah. On the innovation side, uh, I think there is so much more to be done, whether it be internet of things or providing new, uh, offerings for our customer, for our agents, for financial advisors. Uh, so there are so many new things that we can do. And now that we've got a repeatable pattern for migration, our energy is going to really shift towards those more innovation, more new and additional experiences. That's where our energy is going to really shift. >>Well, you took a big step today, certainly with the announcement. I know the AWS partnership is one that you put a lot of value on. It certainly has been successful for you, and we wish you all the continued success as well as you, uh, head on into 2021. Thank you for joining us here today. Thanks John.