ICICI Lombard taps AWS to upgrade its disaster recovery infra

ICICI Lombard, one of India’s private General insurance providers, said on Wednesday that it partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS), for a major upgrade of its disaster recovery (DR) infrastructure from AWS Asia-Pacific (Mumbai) region to AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) region, backed by a fully automated, cloud-native setup.

The insurer in an exchange filing announced the successful completion of a full-site disaster recovery (DR) drill, claiming to be the first in the insurance sector, transitioning all business applications to its secondary cloud region.

This move ensures uninterrupted customer service access in the event of disruptions. The company emphasised the importance of this strengthened continuity framework given the increasing frequency of climate, technology, and IT-related disruptions.

Girish Nayak, Chief – Technology, Health UW and claims at ICICI Lombard, said the transition, executed with automation and real-time validation, demonstrates their readiness to operate seamlessly during unforeseen events. He highlighted their partnership with AWS as crucial for future-proofing their digital infrastructure, moving from recovery preparedness to continuity assurance.

Kiran Jagannath, Head, FSI and Conglomerates, AWS India and South Asia, noted the collaboration secures ICICI Lombard's critical workloads, ensuring faster application recovery, reliability, and data protection through automation.

The upgraded DR setup, utilising native AWS services like Elastic Disaster Recovery (EDR) and AWS Step Functions, enables continuous replication between the Mumbai primary site and the Hyderabad DR site, with seamless switching via domain-based routing.

This achievement reinforces ICICI Lombard's commitment to compliance, customer trust, and uninterrupted service, solidifying its position as a digitally forward insurer, the statement said.

ICICI Lombard began its cloud journey in 2013, migrating production systems by 2014 and fully transitioning to AWS by February 2022 via a "lift and shift" approach. This enabled efficient scaling, data management, and AI/ML utilisation, automating processes like photo-based motor insurance inspections.

Project Orion consolidated core systems while IoT integration for motor insurance enabled behaviour-based discounts and GPS monitoring. Further the company is leveraging generative AI to improve customer experience, reduce cashless authorisation times significantly.

Earlier in an interview with TechCircle, Nayak said that the cloud shift led to tech team expansion, agile adoption, and DevSecOps implementation. Despite operational adjustments, costs were managed effectively. He added that ICICI Lombard aims to leverage advanced technologies for ongoing transformation, solidifying its digital insurance leadership by aligning tech and business with evolving customer needs.