https://www.insurerbrain.com/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Definition%3AMicroservicesDefinition:Microservices - Revision history2026-05-01T00:24:17ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.8https://www.insurerbrain.com/w/index.php?title=Definition:Microservices&diff=9430&oldid=prevPlumBot: Bot: Creating new article from JSON2026-03-11T05:23:22Z<p>Bot: Creating new article from JSON</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>💻 '''Microservices''' is a software architecture approach increasingly adopted by [[Definition:Insurance carrier | insurance carriers]] and [[Definition:Insurtech | insurtechs]] in which an application is built as a collection of small, independently deployable services — each responsible for a discrete business capability such as [[Definition:Rating | rating]], [[Definition:Policy issuance | policy issuance]], [[Definition:Claims management | claims intake]], or [[Definition:Billing | billing]]. This contrasts sharply with the monolithic legacy systems that still underpin many traditional insurers, where a single, tightly coupled codebase handles everything from [[Definition:Underwriting | underwriting]] to [[Definition:Bordereaux | bordereaux]] reporting. By decomposing these functions into loosely connected services that communicate through APIs, insurers gain the flexibility to update one component without risking destabilization of the entire platform.<br />
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🔧 In practice, each microservice owns its own data store and business logic, and teams can develop, test, and deploy them on independent release cycles. A carrier modernizing its [[Definition:Policy administration system (PAS) | policy administration system]] might, for example, extract the quoting engine into its own microservice, allowing data science teams to iterate on pricing models without touching the claims module. Orchestration tools like Kubernetes manage the deployment and scaling of these services, automatically spinning up additional instances when transaction volume spikes — during a [[Definition:Catastrophe (CAT) | catastrophe]] event, for instance, when [[Definition:First notice of loss (FNOL) | FNOL]] submissions surge. Integration with external partners such as [[Definition:Managing general agent (MGA) | MGAs]], [[Definition:Reinsurance | reinsurers]], and third-party data providers also becomes more straightforward because each service exposes well-defined API contracts.<br />
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🚀 For insurance organizations wrestling with decades-old technology, microservices represent a pragmatic modernization path that avoids the risk and cost of a wholesale platform replacement. Rather than embarking on a multi-year "big bang" migration, carriers can incrementally peel off capabilities from their legacy core and rebuild them as modern services — a strategy sometimes called the "strangler fig" pattern. This architectural shift also underpins the [[Definition:Embedded insurance | embedded insurance]] trend, where insurers need lightweight, API-callable services that distribution partners can integrate into their own digital experiences. The trade-off is operational complexity: running dozens or hundreds of services demands mature [[Definition:DevOps | DevOps]] practices, robust monitoring, and clear service ownership — investments that ultimately pay dividends in speed to market and resilience.<br />
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'''Related concepts:'''<br />
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* [[Definition:Application programming interface (API)]]<br />
* [[Definition:Policy administration system (PAS)]]<br />
* [[Definition:Legacy system]]<br />
* [[Definition:Cloud computing]]<br />
* [[Definition:Embedded insurance]]<br />
* [[Definition:Digital transformation]]<br />
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