The Hartford, IBM Report Deal for Moving of IT to Cloud, Deal Valued at $500M

The Hartford (NYSE: HIG) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a new six-year technology services agreement toimplement a new service model that includes a private cloud infrastructure.The partnership supports The Hartford's strategy to drive profitable growthand increase operational effectiveness as it continues to focus on itsproperty and casualty, group benefits and mutual funds businesses.“As The Hartford continues to execute on its strategic plan, we are makingsignificant technology investments to increase operational effectiveness andimprove our competitiveness,” said Andy Napoli, president of Consumer Marketsand Enterprise Business Services at The Hartford. “The partnership with IBMwill help The Hartford implement a strategic technology infrastructure thatwill provide us with greater agility and offer us more flexibility andtransparency as we continue to grow our businesses.”The Hartford will move to a private cloud-based infrastructure on IBM'sPureFlex System. Under the $500 million agreement, IBM will also provide anumber of other services related to mainframe, storage, backup and resiliency.The Hartford will define the services it requires, and IBM will be responsiblefor the solution and delivery of those services.“Today's announcement is an example of how leading organizations are utilizingcloud technology to gain competitive advantage,” said Philip Guido, generalmanager, IBM Global Technology Services, North America. “Clients today arelooking for IT partners who can understand and help drive their business witha focus on innovation and delivering business outcomes, not just ITefficiency. This expansion of our partnership with The Hartford illustratesthe work IBM is leading with cloud.”A recent IBM study reveals that 66 percent of organizations are using cloud tostrengthen the relationship between IT and lines of business, and the majorityare using cloud to integrate and apply mobile, social, analytics and Big Datatechnologies.As part of the agreement, The Hartford and IBM will also partner on thecreation of a joint innovation committee to foster collaboration on strategicinitiatives. The project will leverage the expertise of both firms, marketinsights and research to build new business models and competitivecapabilities that will enhance The Hartford's ability to anticipate and meetthe needs of customers and agents.