Parametrix’s cloud downtime insurance business is growing

Hedge against downtime

In December, when AWS experienced a major outage in its Northern Virginia region that shut down applications, websites, and services dependent on its cloud platform, Parametrix Insurance switched to ‘stock.

3-year-old startup offers cloud downtime insurance to compensate policyholders for their financial losses – or the losses of their customers – when their cloud provider suffers a service interruption. On average, one of the top three public cloud providers — AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — experienced an outage of at least 30 minutes every three weeks in 2021, according to Parametrix.

• “We’re here for these types of events,” said Neta Rozy, Parametrix co-founder and chief technology officer.
• “When we identify downtime, we immediately pay the customer. Any loss is covered. Unlike traditional insurance where you have to file a claim, in this case there is no claims process,” she said.
• Parametrix says its downtime insurance fills a critical gap in insurance and complements other types of insurance coverage, such as technology errors and omissions insurance or cybersecurity insurance policies.
• Coverage is triggered after a one-hour waiting period — the shortest waiting period on the market, according to Rozy, who said most traditional cybersecurity covers come with 1-hour waiting periods. at least eight to 10 hours.

Parametrix has developed a proprietary cloud monitoring system which produces more than 700 million data points per week. Its cloud downtime insurance covers 18 AWS services, 13 Microsoft Azure services, 15 Google Cloud services, and provides some coverage for Oracle Cloud.

• To begin, Parametrix and its customers agree on the monetary value of the coverage they will need for each hour of downtime.
• It offers a free risk assessment and will recommend a coverage amount based on the type of customer as well as their industry, income, and other factors, but customers can opt for more or less coverage. There is no deductible.
• The company, which sells its policies in the United States, Europe, Israel and Japan, has hundreds of customers, according to Rozy. Its “sweet spot” is enterprises – companies that focus on risk management and try to protect themselves against financial loss – as well as cloud-dependent businesses.

Syte, which offers a product discovery platform for brands and retail, is a Parametrix customer.

• “We leverage visual AI to improve search and discovery experiences for shoppers and drive revenue for retailers,” said CEO Vered Levy-Ron.
• “If our platform were to go down due to a cloud outage, it would lead to a poor shopping experience and our customers – the retailers – would lose revenue. Buying downtime insurance cloud shutdown allows us to mitigate this risk of lost revenue and ensure that we are able to compensate customers for any breaches [service-level agreements] due to cloud unavailability,” she said.
• Syte has yet to have an incident of downtime since taking out the coverage, but, Levy-Ron said, “if we had had an outage before we were insured, we would have been forced to use money from our cash balance sheet and incur unexpected expenses.”

Like almost all major cloud customers, many Parametrix customers have Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with cloud providers, who issue credits when they fail to meet a certain minimum monthly uptime percentage.

• This is different from covering financial damage to a business.
• Parametrix policyholders can use their payments to cover financial losses, including lost revenue, lost end-user and employee productivity, customer compensation, data loss or damage, and data breaches. the reputation.
• Parametrix typically offers downtime insurance for up to 18 hours of coverage, but coverage can be customized to last longer if needed. Premiums, which are determined by the desired amount of coverage per hour and a customer’s cloud infrastructure, can range from $10,000 per year to $500,000 per year.
• “We’ve had companies asking for $1 million for every hour they’re down,” Rozy said.

The claims environment for cyber insurance is volatile right now, and there aren’t many companies looking to enter the market with new products such as cloud downtime insurance, according to Rachel Jenkins, chief customer success officer and managing director of the broker. Founder Shield Insurance.

• “A lot of carriers have seen an increase in the amount of claim payments they’ve had to pay, which has made them less hungry,” she said. “You’ve seen the rates really go up. Some operators have completely withdrawn from the cybermarket, so I was pleasantly surprised by this [Parametrix has] could offer. And they’ve really been able to leverage technology in a way that we really identify with and our customers identify with as well.

— Donna Goodison (E-mail | Twitter)

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This web goes up to 3

Google wants to make its cloud platform the first choice for developers working on blockchain, cryptocurrency and other emerging Web3 applications.

It is setting up a new Google Cloud product and engineering team to build services and tools to help Web3 application developers in what Amit Zavery, managing director and head of platform for Google Cloud, called it “one of the most advanced areas of technology”.

“While the world is still in the early stages of its adoption of Web3, this is a market that is already demonstrating tremendous potential, with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and crypto-related technologies” , Zavery said in an email to Googlers today. obtained by protocol.

James Tromans, currently CTO of Google Cloud’s CTO Office, will lead the new Web3 team. The former Citi executive has played a key role in Google Cloud’s Web3 efforts since joining the cloud provider in 2019, according to Zavery.

The Web3 team’s initial work will focus on building real-time data and analytics capabilities for blockchain data, making it easier to run blockchain nodes and enabling Google Cloud enterprise customers and emerging Web3 companies to participate in the space, according to Zavery. Google Cloud Web3 customers include blockchain and distributed ledger companies Hedera Hashgraph, Theta Labs, Block.one, and Dapper Labs.

“We will also contribute to open source projects directly on Google’s behalf to ensure the continued viability and openness of the broader Web3 marketplace,” Zavery said.

— Donna Goodison (E-mail | Twitter)

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