Afa Insurance, owned by Sweden’s labor market parties, provides insurance coverage for over 4.9 million individuals in the private sector, municipalities and county councils. Its collective agreements ensure financial support in times of sickness, work injury, parental leave and more, fostering peace of mind for its policy holders. Operating in three key areas – insure, manage and prevent – Afa Insurance administers comprehensive insurance coverage, manages valuable knowledge and assets, and actively promotes preventive measures to improve health in the workplace. As a nonprofit organization, Afa’s primary focus is to create healthier, more prosperous working environments.
At-a-Glance
Afa Insurance embarked on a transformative journey with Rancher Prime to modernize its software development processes and maintain its commitment to customers. By adopting Kubernetes and Rancher Prime, the company harnessed the power of containerization, driving innovation while ensuring regulatory compliance and security. The seamless infrastructure upgrades enabled faster time to market for digital services, empowering developers to deploy changes in production within an hour. With increased collaboration and efficiency, Afa Insurance’s constant advancement aligns with its vision of a better working life for millions, exemplifying the power of Rancher Prime in enabling success for technology-driven organizations.
The journey to containers
Afa Insurance decided to embark on a transformative journey to modernize its software development process. Before adopting Kubernetes architecture and containerization, Afa relied on a monolithic system. While functional, this setup proved slow in implementing new features, hindering the company’s ability to keep pace with ever-changing regulatory demands and a dynamic business landscape.
Daniel Fröding, IT consultant at Afa, emphasizes the driving force behind this transformation: “It was instrumental for Afa to get a container platform in place. There’s a growing need for digital development to meet evolving business requirements.”
As Afa expanded its digital services, it sought to optimize efficiency and costeffectiveness, channeling the maximum value back to its customers by minimizing unnecessary expenses. Their goal was to ensure that a significant portion of the fees paid by their customers would translate into improved services and benefits.
The core objective of the transformation was to strike a delicate balance between reducing costs and increasing software capabilities. “All this modernization is to increase speed and efficiency while at the same time maintaining security and compliance,” Fröding explains. By adopting the container-based approach with Rancher Prime, Afa aimed to streamline development processes, accelerating the delivery of innovative features and services to its clientele.
With the new platform, the organization’s development teams could develop and deploy digital solutions more efficiently. The move to containerization allowed for greater flexibility, scalability and agility in responding to market demands. “The digital system running on Rancher Prime now has the potential for numerous features and services that we can develop. It’s about increasing speed and efficiency while not compromising on security and compliance,” Fröding says.
Navigating complexity in a changing landscape
As Afa Insurance embraced a faster pace of development and an increased volume of systems in production, it encountered several challenges. To address security concerns and achieve its modernization goals, Afa needed a robust platform that inherently complies with stringent regulations, freeing its developer teams to focus on building products and services.
With growing security concerns and increased regulatory demands in the industry, Afa needed a more modern platform. The company sought a solution that would simplify the complexities of infrastructure, security setup, cryptography and data backup, enabling its developer teams to concentrate on innovation without being experts in several specialized fields.
“My first time upgrading the underlying node in production took less than an hour, compared to two weeks previously.”
Why Rancher Prime?
Afa Insurance sought a solution that could deliver both flexibility and enterprise-grade support. Within six months, it became evident that Rancher Prime was ideal for Afa’s needs, providing the right balance of features and support. Fröding shared how it swiftly transitioned to Rancher Prime, benefiting from the platform’s compatibility with its existing VMware infrastructure. “We switched to enterprise support somewhere around six to eight months after experimenting with the community version of Rancher,” he explains. Being able to start with the community version allowed Afa to try it out and gain valuable insights into its capabilities.
Afa’s commitment to using VMware as its virtualization engine complemented Rancher Prime’s functionalities. Rancher Prime’s Cloud API compatibility allowed the company to set up its clusters on VMware automatically, streamlining its operations and enhancing efficiency. This harmonious integration further cemented Rancher’s status as the preferred choice for Afa’s digital service needs.
Throughout the journey with Rancher Prime, the organization experienced continuous growth and improvement. It transitioned to RKE2, SUSE’s fully conformant Kubernetes distribution that focuses on security and compliance, ensuring its customers’ data and transactions remain protected. Furthermore, Afa implemented infrastructure as code and embraced GitOps, further elevating its processes to a new level of efficiency and automation. Rancher Prime and RKE2 emerged as invaluable assets for the company, providing the necessary simplicity and support to address intricate challenges effectively.
Adopting Rancher Prime and RKE2 would allow Afa to move more aspects of its services and products into a secure and compliant platform. By leveraging these tools, Afa could create a solid foundation that streamlined the development process, alleviated security concerns and ensured regulatory adherence.
As the company continues to expand its use of Rancher Prime, the importance of robust enterprise support becomes vital. Fröding states: “The importance of SUSE’s Support on Rancher Prime’s platform will grow as we migrate more and more parts of the services and products that Afa needs to run as a business.”
The impact of Rancher Prime
Currently, Afa’s digital service, supported by Rancher Prime, runs smoothly in production. This platform handles a diverse range of claim types, enabling Afa’s customers to access self-service processes for unemployment, sickness and other scenarios. Following the adoption of Rancher Prime to modernize its workflow, Afa Insurance has experienced a range of significant benefits. These include seamless infrastructure upgrades, improved time-to-market and enhanced compliance and security.
Seamless infrastructure upgrades
The adoption of Rancher Prime at Afa Insurance has yielded remarkable results, providing the organization with a platform that offers self-service capabilities to teams. Ali Al-Janabi, container platform specialist at Afa, shares an example of the platform’s impact on infrastructure upgrades: “My first time upgrading the underlying node in production took less than an hour, compared to two weeks previously.” Rancher Prime’s seamless and efficient upgrade process allows developers to continue their work without interruptions, exemplifying the platform’s user-centric design and ability to keep pace with Afa’s evolving needs.
Improves time to market
The transition to Rancher Prime has significantly accelerated Afa’s time to market for software deployments. The developer teams now enjoy the freedom to deploy to production whenever they deem fit, enabling a continuous delivery approach while adhering to the organization’s segregation of duties and IT processes.
“Rancher Prime has been widely internally acknowledged for its role in transforming monthlong changes into rapid hourly updates,” Fröding says. The enhanced time to market empowers Afa’s product teams to deliver more efficiently, aligning with the organization’s vision of continuous improvement.
Enhances compliance and security
One of the most critical aspects of adopting Rancher Prime was Afa’s ability to establish a compliance-by-default setup. By integrating security and compliance into the platform, Afa alleviated the burden on every individual within the organization to grapple with these complexities independently. This streamlined approach allows developers to focus on their core tasks without compromising security or regulatory adherence. The platform’s capability to identify and resolve setup issues during node upgrades further enhances its value, facilitating swift rectification and ensuring a secure and compliant environment.
Empowers IT teams
Rancher Prime’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive documentation have significantly empowered less experienced team members, reducing the need for heavy reliance on consultants over time. Rancher Prime’s ability to handle infrastructure, security and other crucial aspects allows Afa’s developers to focus on driving business value rather than getting entangled in complex technicalities.
The impact of Priority Support
Afa Insurance’s experience with Rancher Prime has been strengthened by dedicated enterprise support from SUSE. The close collaboration between Afa and SUSE’s Support team has proven instrumental in addressing issues and driving meaningful improvements.
Individualized support channels
According to Afa’s team, the seamless and interactive communication facilitated through shared Slack channels has also expedited issue resolution. SUSE’s Support team also offers ongoing interactive video calls and in-depth product explanations, creating a valuable and nurturing learning environment. “Compared to when I joined the container platform team six months ago and now, SUSE’s Support team and documentation have made a huge difference. They help a lot, especially if you’re a beginner,” says Al-Janabi.
Strategic decision-making and roadmap insights
Afa Insurance’s use of Rancher Prime has not only resolved immediate challenges but has also provided valuable insights into future developments. A dedicated customer success manager ensures that Afa meets with product managers at SUSE to discuss the platform’s roadmap. This forward-looking approach empowers Afa to make informed and strategic architectural decisions, ensuring alignment with Rancher Prime’s future advancements. The proactive engagement and support of a customer success manager fosters a strong sense of partnership and a collaborative approach to optimizing the platform’s performance.
What’s next for Afa Insurance?
For Afa Insurance, the journey with Kubernetes and Rancher Prime is far from over. Looking ahead, the company aims to further embrace the power of Kubernetes by moving more of its services onto the platform. Moreover, Afa remains committed to enhancing security measures, ensuring its platform maintains the highest level of protection for sensitive data and transactions.