Transforming API security and management for a leading Malaysian insurance provider

One of Malaysia’s foremost insurance providers has taken a bold step toward digital transformation by replacing its legacy reverse proxy setup with a secure, scalable API-led architecture. Partnering with Crest Infosolutions, the insurer implemented Kong Enterprise Gateway to streamline system integration, bolster security, and accelerate the delivery of digital self-service channels for customers. The result is a modern API ecosystem that improves performance, reduces overhead, and lays the foundation for future innovation.

Customer Background

As a trusted name in Malaysia’s insurance sector, the company offers a wide range of protection and investment products to individuals and businesses. With a reputation built on reliability and service excellence, the insurer is also known for embracing digital innovation to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market. From online policy management to mobile-first claims submission, the company continues to reimagine how it delivers value to policyholders.

For years, the company relied on a traditional reverse proxy approach to manage and secure access to its digital platforms. While this setup provided basic routing and traffic forwarding, it fell short in areas critical to a modern, API-first environment. As digital services grew in both volume and complexity, the team faced mounting challenges with scalability, visibility, and security enforcement. The need for real-time integration between customer-facing portals and backend systems became a top priority, but the existing infrastructure lacked the tools and agility to support this demand. Development cycles were slowed by manual configurations and fragmented access control, and onboarding new services often required custom effort and redundant configurations.

Recognizing the urgency of modernization, the insurance provider turned to Crest Infosolutions for guidance on establishing a future-proof API strategy. After careful evaluation, the team selected Kong Enterprise Gateway as the foundation for its next-generation digital architecture.

Kong enabled the organization to centralize API routing, security, and observability across its services, replacing the limitations of the reverse proxy with a unified platform purpose-built for high performance and microservices scalability. Working closely with Crest, the insurer established a robust three-tier deployment model, securing internal and external APIs through Kong’s advanced plugins, including JWT, OAuth2, and OIDC. This architecture ensured that real-time services—such as policy lookups, claims initiation, and status notifications—could be securely delivered across mobile and web platforms with minimal latency.

To further accelerate development, the company leveraged Kong’s Developer Portal to provide teams with a single access point to discover, test, and consume APIs. This streamlined collaboration across departments and enabled faster rollouts of digital products with consistent governance and quality assurance.

The adoption of Kong Enterprise transformed the way the insurance provider manages and delivers APIs. Processes that previously took days—such as verifying customer details or connecting services between internal systems—can now be completed in seconds. The API gateway ensures that all digital interactions are both secure and seamless, allowing customers to access services in real time, whether they are filing a claim or reviewing policy details.

Kong also empowered the insurer to move toward a microservices-based architecture. By offloading traffic management, rate limiting, and service discovery to Kong, the team reduced its dependence on costly hardware and legacy load balancers. This not only improved scalability but also delivered substantial cost savings.

Through this transformation, the company has established a resilient and observable system that balances security with performance. With built-in monitoring and analytics, platform teams now have the visibility they need to optimize API performance and proactively manage issues before they impact users.

Crest continues to support the insurer through a managed services model, providing ongoing enhancements, onboarding of new applications, and ensuring that API management practices are standardized across the organization. This long-term partnership reinforces the company’s commitment to secure, scalable, and customer-centric digital solutions.

Why Crest Infosolutions

As a strategic technology partner, Crest Infosolutions played an integral role in guiding the insurer through its digital evolution. From identifying the limitations of the legacy setup to implementing a secure and scalable API-first infrastructure, Crest brought the technical expertise and platform knowledge needed to ensure a successful transformation. Today, the insurance provider stands equipped with a robust, agile, and future-ready digital foundation—thanks to a solution that delivers measurable impact and long-term value.