Case Study: Zurich Insurance Group achieves 50% faster data processing and personalised services with Cloudera

Using data insights to deliver personalised services, custom policies and reduce risk

Zurich Insurance Group, a global insurer with ~55,000 employees in 170+ countries, faced the challenge of turning massive, varied data — including IoT telemetry and JSON files in its data lake — into actionable insight for better risk assessment, personalized policies and customer experiences. The company needed a scalable, secure big data platform to move from passive data collection to intelligent, real‑time use without compromising compliance.

Zurich partnered with Hortonworks and Everis to deploy the Hortonworks Data Platform with Cloudbreak on Microsoft Azure, creating a single, flexible data environment that auto‑scales for operational and analytical workloads. The solution processes hundreds of TBs of data 50% faster, cuts response time for new requirements by 70%, delivers a single customer view, and strengthens GDPR compliance — enabling more accurate risk mitigation, tailored products and faster innovation.

Zurich Insurance Group

José Luis Sánchez

Head of Big Data Operations