IT security for more than 200 million customers

Measuring health – for better health management

The company’s secret to success: The health index it has developed makes health measurable. And what you can measure you can also manage and optimize. dacadoo deliveries twice the added value. On the one hand, it allows health organizations and insurers to quantify health risks reliably. On the other, it enables end customers to improve the quality of their health systematically. After all, the dacadoo app turns health into an experience for the user – thanks to automated health coaching, various gamification tools, and an integrated interactive community.

Away from big applications and toward agile microservices

It’s not only the range of services offered by the healthcare pioneer that’s fascinating, but also its history. Particularly, how the IT infrastructure has changed over ten years. For instance, during an initial phase the company ran its solutions on premises. The advantage was that it could keep everything under control and manage its own processes.

And the disadvantage? Any business that grows and gains new customers, countries, and partners needs to scale quickly and adjust its applications to new requirements in an agile way. But simple deployment and efficient onboarding is difficult to realize with complex IT systems. For this reason, dacadoo opted for a fundamental change of course in 2019. Sandro Toneatto, CTO of the company, explains: “Meanwhile, our solutions run on three continents with over 21 contracting partners involved – and the IT architecture also needs to be able to handle this complex structure. For us specifically, this means we are moving away from big applications and toward agile microservices.”

Slicker and more agile – modern security architecture for microservices

Microservices are almost predestined for fast scaling, since complex application software is composed of independent processes. In other words, microservices work like a modular system based on different containers. However, this modular philosophy also requires an adjusted security architecture, which Airlock Microgateway is able to provide.

Airlock Microgateway – making security scalable

Airlock Microgateway is the ideal solution for microservice architectures and DevOps methods because it is based on the proven core security of the Airlock Gateway Appliance and enables short innovation cycles, automated roll-outs, and distributed applications in cloud environments.

“To achieve a high level of agility, we also chose a cloud solution,” Sandro Toneatto continues. “Here too, Airlock won us over as we don’t any face vendor lock-in for our SaaS. We therefore selected the ideal cloud for us.”

While agility is undoubtedly an important factor – applications also need to be absolutely secure, especially in the sensitive healthcare sector. dacadoo faces a particular challenge in this context, as it operates in a wide range of countries. Not only do the common compliance regulations like HIPAA, ISO 27000, and the GDPR have to be observed, but also the diverse range of requirements specific to each country. The good news is that, with its upstream approach, Airlock meets a wide array of regulatory requirements. This means that each application does not have to be individually adapted. A centralized solution ensures what’s critical in daily operations: maximum efficiency.

High speed and extensive expertise – why­ Airlock­ is­ the­ perfect­ fit­ for­ dacadoo

Besides the technical aspects, there’s another argument for why dacadoo chose Airlock – an argument that primarily relates to the collaboration.

“As a start-up in the tech sector, we sought an innovation partner that offered both high speed and extensive expertise. These are precisely the characteristics that distinguish Airlock, and during collaboration you clearly feel that you’re dealing with engineers and not just sellers. The benefit for us is that we get exactly the future-proof solutions we need – a major plus especially in times of digital transformation.”