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Shiny mortality tracker

The R programming language has steadily increased in importance for actuaries.  A marker for this importance is that knowledge of R is required for passing UK actuarial exams.  R has many benefits, but one thing that native R lacked was an easy user interface for creating apps for others to use.  Fortunately, this has changed with the release of libraries like Shiny, which we will demonstrate here in the context of an interactive mortality tracker.

Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: technology

EDS - Enhanced Dedicated Servers

A large part of our service has traditionally revolved around Dedicated Servers — parallelised instances of our applications running on multi-threaded platforms for a single license holder (in contrast our shared servers offer single-thread performance in a multi-tenant way to multiple license holders, a model that is suitable for only the least demanding use-cases).

Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: technology

Separation as a service

During the current Covid-19 pandemic, and in common with many service providers, we're dealing with support requests from users working at home. This isn't a huge upheaval for us, since we've always been a SaaS provider, and SaaS is intrinsically decentralised.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: technology, coronavirus, public health

One (more) time passcodes

Passwords seldom stand alone in modern applications, and for good reason. Perhaps they might be guessed or leak or otherwise be broken, so it is a bad idea to make them the only line of defence. This is why multi-factor authentication (MFA) is modern best practice.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: technology

Auditing firewalls

In a recent blog I discussed the security improvements brought by changing our certification authority, but that isn't our only recent change.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: technology, defence in-depth

Resetting certificates

Web site certification supports the key exchange enabling secure encrypted communication between browser clients and server applications. This is why industry giant Google launched a campaign in 2014 that all web applications should use a browser-recognised certificate authority (CA) and offer encrypted access.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: technology, defence in-depth

Remembrance of things past

With all due respect to Marcel Proust, involuntary memory isn't something I particularly worry about. Now, involuntary forgetting on the other hand, that is something I'll admit to, and I'm fairly sure I'm not alone.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: audit, technology

Parallel (Va)R

One of our services, the Projections Toolkit, is a collaboration with Heriot-Watt University.  Implementing stochastic projections can be a tricky business, so it is good to have the right people on the job.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: parallel processing, technology

Following the thread

Gavin recently explored the topic of threads and parallel processing.  But what does this mean from a business perspective?
Written by: Stephen RichardsTags: parallel processing, simulation, Solvency II, technology

Competitive eating

I've previously suggested parallel processing might have a touch of the infernal about it, and further evidence might be how it allows us to usefully indulge in one of the seven deadly sins, that of gluttony.
Written by: Gavin RitchieTags: parallel processing, technology