Cloud for Pharma: The path to digital transformation

Digital transformation is all about becoming a digital enterprise: an organization that uses technology to continually evolve all aspects of its business. As technology evolves, so does the business. For pharmaceutical companies, digital transformation means experimenting with new technology and rethinking current approaches—from discovery and clinical trials to manufacturing, marketing, and post-marketing surveillance.

Digital transformation also means automation of processes to run the business efficiently, increase productivity, and stimulate innovation while improving the patient experience.

Some digital transformation use cases in pharma are advanced analytics; accuracy and quality; cost savings; security; and efficiency and productivity.

Cloud is at the forefront of the technologies leading digital transformation in the pharmaceutical industry. Cloud infrastructure is bringing in a new era of innovation and automation of business transformation alongside efficiency, cost savings, and security.

The scalability and agility of the cloud can help pharma companies of all sizes streamline clinical research, enhance innovation, and reduce costs, while simultaneously making it possible to grow effortlessly as business needs expand.

According to industry experts, cloud computing is the infrastructure that pharma organizations need to enable true digital transformation. In a vast number of use cases—from discovery to development and clinical research—different types and sources of data need to access each other in real time. In discovery and clinical trials, pharma organizations are generating huge amounts of data that have to be summarized and archived.

Pharma companies must access customer data for healthcare providers in order to look at affiliation or prescribing history. Most of the time that data resides in other databases. But with cloud computing, pharmaceutical professionals can access and leverage data in the cloud, and they can use other cloud tools like AI and data analytics to derive next steps.

Another benefit is the power to scale up quickly. The beauty of a cloud-based system is that it’s completely painless to scale up when you need more data. You can also scale back down when you need less—for example, when a big project is over.

The traditional drug lifecycle of 10 or more years isn’t feasible anymore. Researchers are constantly seeking ways to conduct mission-critical research and development work in significantly shorter spans of time. Cloud computing enables the pharma community to innovate rapidly, manage changes effortlessly, and deliver new medicines to market faster.

Cloud-based infrastructure offers secure storage for sizable and sensitive information. It also supports data security, integrity, and compliance with regulatory entities. Cloud environments are also secure when it comes to control over and access to data. Reputable cloud service providers offer continuous security monitoring and incident response, and they can quickly identify security issues and apply patches.

The right partner is critical for your cloud journey. Only NetApp^® provides the leading innovations and technical know-how you need to power patient-centric, data-driven insights across pharma, healthcare, and life sciences. Accelerate clinical insights and improve health outcomes with industry-leading, validated, and certified solutions.

Learn more about what NetApp can do for you.