Data Virtualization Streamlines the Data Infrastructure at AXA XL

• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

• Business Operation

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• Data Science Services
• System Integration

AXA XL's data management architecture was extremely complex, with multiple operational source systems and multiple stakeholders from different business groups using their own BI tools to access data. The company relied on ETL processes to integrate the data, leading to excessive replication. This resulted in latencies in data delivery and inconsistencies between different data sets, creating multiple versions of the truth. Outdated or unreliable figures were reported to stakeholders. There was also a lack of data access control, with no way to trace who accessed what data, or when. Without role-based access rules, anyone could access any data, regardless of whether or not they had the authority. This made the entire data management architecture extremely vulnerable to security breaches and exposed the company to the risk of falling out of GDPR compliance.

AXA XL is the property-and-casualty (P&C) and specialty risk division of AXA, known for solving even the most complex risks. Serving mid-sized companies as well as the world’s largest multinationals, AXA XL offers traditional and innovative insurance solutions and services in over 200 countries and territories. The company’s success is fuelled by a strong, efficient capital platform, data-driven insights, leading technology, and a flexible approach. Driven by a culture of superior service, AXA XL creates relevant solutions across all lines of business − property, casualty, professional, financial lines, and specialty.

AXA consolidated the data from its multiple policy management systems into a platform called the Data Ecosystem and Engagement Platform (DEEP), hosted on Azure. The DEEP leverages TIBCO MDM to manage all the master data, and Azure data lakes to host all the big data and related technologies like Spark and Databricks. The Denodo platform in Azure played the role of a business translation layer in AXA XL's cloud-based architecture. It acted as a single semantic layer between all the consuming apps on one side and the data sources on the other side. As a result, the Denodo platform enabled AXA to create central data access, data governance, and security policies across AXA XL's data infrastructure and facilitated the central control of data governance and security.

• The Denodo Platform acts as the single point of entry to all the different systems, eliminating the need for each consuming application to connect to the sources individually, and in the process making the data architecture nimble.
• This also greatly reduced the need to replicate data while making the data available to business teams in a faster way, vastly improving business agility.
• Business teams are now able to publish more reports, from more sources, more often, without having to move any data.