The time for cloud is now

As life sciences companies maneuver amid complex and rigorous regulations, shifting business models, increasing amounts of data, and constrained costs and pricing, they are increasingly seeing the benefits of moving IT operations to the cloud.

Cloud computing can empower collaboration, help accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiencies. It can also deliver the high performance, scalability and agility that life sciences organizations need to cope with the ever-changing, increasingly restrictive regulations that dictate frequent system changes.

Cloud considerations for life sciences

In an industry known for being technologically conservative, most life sciences companies are at the edge of cloud adoption, in the early stages of testing and implementation. Organizations have delayed because they’re concerned about data security and safety, and they want to know that their intellectual property and data are protected. By maintaining systems in house, they believe they can better control storage, availability and data distribution, while also ensuring that systems comply with government regulations.

Such closed systems, however, can create disadvantages; they tend to be expensive to maintain and don’t scale easily. Data is typically spread among multiple, often siloed systems, making it difficult to manage and share. And while it seems to contradict conventional wisdom, closed systems can also hinder compliance with federal regulations.

As an example, consider the Identification of Medicinal Products (IDMP) regulation, which companies are preparing for now. This global standard is designed to enable the unique identification of products throughout their life cycles. But it requires companies to exchange that information among a number of groups, including regulators and partners. Cloud can make this collaboration happen, securely and seamlessly.

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