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Transitioning to the cloud — drivers and challenges

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Dr Stuart Ward, head of business analysis at IDBS, discusses why organisations should be considering transitioning to cloud-based software and technologies and some of the important things they should keep in mind.

There are numerous incentives for firms that embrace new technologies, especially cloud computing. Integrating such software can speed up processes, support innovation, provide companies with easily-scalable solutions and allow for closer collaboration with different individuals and organisations. All these can lead to accelerated development, boosting productivity and profits.

But despite all these incentives, concerns remain for organisations thinking about implementation. For research companies, the necessity of moving all their information ‘out of the building’ brings justified concerns around security. There can also be misunderstandings in the kind of services that organisations require. Cloud computing can mean many different things — from multi-tenanted solutions to virtual private clouds and server-less computing — with derived benefits from each for the organisation.

For research organisations, the imperative to cut costs, increase efficiency and reduce time to market are forcing firms to reconsider the ways they interact with technology. If organisations and institutions alter their business models to reflect these technological advances, stagnant productivity can be halted or reversed. The incentives for deployment of cloud-solutions far outweigh the concerns — but choosing the right solution and provider is critical.

In nearly every work environment around the globe, digital transformations are taking place that change the way individuals produce, interact, and engage with their work. Scientific research laboratories are no different. Whether they’re big or small, these changes mean laboratories are now creating, transforming and leveraging data in unprecedented ways.

Mastering technology and information is an essential part of any organisation’s research. When the task is to find the next ‘big thing’ — from pharmaceuticals through to new food flavours and improved plastics — past practices often aren't enough, meaning new approaches and technologies must be brought into the fold. The technology that empowers experiments and projects must be able to supply a solution for the problems of today, while also being capable of growing and enabling the promises of tomorrow.

Let’s start with the why you should consider transitioning to using cloud software and technologies

Scale

When delivering business applications via software-as-a-service (SaaS), the complexity of the underlying IT infrastructure is all handled by your cloud provider. Neither your users nor your IT department have to worry about licences, maintenance of hardware or which operating system version supports which databases — the vendor will take care of all of this, so you don’t have to. Because vendors work with their cloud service providers to host the software, you won’t need to invest further in any infrastructure. If more users are needed, you have a very busy period coming up or a vital project and need more software, no longer do you need to work with IT on new server devices and infrastructure, just order more licences and they can be available immediately.

Support and guaranteed levels of service

Cloud technologies are typically managed by the vendors experts who understand the application inside out, for example, to manage availability and the deployment of patches to ensure the application remains performant and robust. This is often not the case with traditional on-premise software that has to be maintained and managed by your internal IT teams, who are likely to be simultaneously managing different applications at once and could never reasonably be expected to understand vendors’ software to the same level.

Most cloud providers will guarantee their applications will be available a very high percentage of the time sometimes 99% of the time. In the event they don’t deliver they will often offer some form of compensation.

Security

In many instances, an organisation’s business information is more secure in a SaaS solution than in a traditional software on-premise situation. While some IT personnel worry about information security outside of the enterprise walls, the truth is that SaaS vendors provide a much higher level of security than standard enterprise IT infrastructure, alongside the added benefit of data/disaster recovery. That is not to say this doesn’t need real consideration, there will be some situations when handing over the crown jewels will just not be acceptable… But. We’ll come back to this.

Data recovery/backups

If you are familiar with traditional lab based database software, you’ll know that unless a potentially costly automated solution has been implemented, the process of backing up your data on a weekly basis can be laborious even at the best of times. Cloud technology eradicates this painstaking yet essential task, scheduling automatic backups without user intervention and ensuring the integrity and security of your critical data. Current best practice for SaaS data infrastructures is to have two separate geographical locations that identically store and mirror your data. In the incredibly unlikely event that a disaster occurs in one of the centres, the other data centre can continue delivering the SaaS service without interruption or loss of data. Not many organisations can do this on-premise.

Cross platform support

As mentioned earlier, with software hosted in the cloud, users can generally access it via a range of devices or browsers, from wherever they have an internet connection, enabling workers to continue write-ups, and analyse data with access to real-time data information. For remote workers, the ability to access the software and data when they need it can increase the productivity of teams. It also means you can invite third-party collaborators into the software, with most cloud-based solutions allowing you to set the level of access as required. Overall giving employees more flexibility in working habits and device access has a very positive impact on productivity and user enjoyment.

Lower initial costs/speed to implement

Nearly all cloud solutions are provided on a subscription basis and can be provided to users quickly. This is because not only do vendors have to write and support their code but they are also taking on the on-going costs on providing up-to-date infrastructure, security technologies and everything else required to run the software. In most cases this is rented from a third party such as Amazon or Microsoft and incurs on-going costs, it is simpler and easier for vendors to then sell the service on a subscription. In addition, as mentioned above, this also means that organisations do not need to go through lengthy hardware procurement/setup processes meaning that the time to implement is generally a lot shorter when using a cloud based solution. The overall effect for organisations is lower IT costs and a faster ROI.

Major things to consider when moving to the cloud

‘Does the why above apply?’ This may seem like a funny statement but sometimes there will be over-riding issues and drivers that mean no matter how big the opportunity is that it just is not suitable for you. Take the example of the navy, a submarine may need to work off-line for long periods of time, in this scenario off-line working is critical to working continuity and as such cloud technology is not going to work. Now I’m not saying everyone works on a sub or that there are many labs on submarines but it is important to consider as many factors as possible and ensure that if nothing more that the questions have been asked and that your business is happy with the answers.

Security

We touched on security above as a driver for moving to the cloud, whilst I stand by my statement, it is not true in all cases both internal infrastructure and vendors cloud infrastructure. In our experience this is the single largest questions customers have when deciding on whether to move to the cloud. So, in order to create a higher level of confidence below are a few questions to consider (this is not an extensive list but is merely a place to start):

Data residency

Much like security this is another area that comes up a lot in customer engagements. Our industry is constantly looking to scale out their global capabilities to help address customer requirements in this area. Some companies residing in certain geographical locations require that the data produced must reside inside the borders of that country. Having a provider that enables this can be vital and understanding the policies and procedures that are required can ease some of these concerns.

Regulatory requirements

In the past if you worked in a regulated environment under GxP the cloud was out of bounds. This is no longer the case, some vendors have ensured that their cloud technologies can be deployed into GxP environments. If through automation and technology the IQ and OQ can actually speed up the validation process and reduce its costs. The exact details have to be considered along with specific requirements but it is no longer the barrier it used to be.

Functionality/capabilities

Finally, the other major area that needs to be considered is the functionality and capability one. This might seem obvious but in a lot of cases the cloud platforms do not have the same functionality as their equivalent on-premise legacy ones. Sometimes it will have been implemented in a different way or is just not possible due to restrictions in accessing the device it is being used from. A simple example is the file system or registry on a host device that could be used to store and manage information locally, this is no longer possible in a cloud solution and will need to be implemented in a different way. You will find many scenarios where this happens and in some cases functionality just can’t be delivered or is very different from what users are used to. There is a compromise here that needs to be considered.

On top of this there are other IT considerations that may be required such as the opening of ports in the firewall etc. Vendors are working on new innovative ways of doing things but sometimes based on requirements, IT will need to be involved in the process. A good example of this is access to networked instruments: The cloud solution sits outside the firewall but needs to access instruments inside the firewall. This can often be a headache and needs to be worked through with the vendor and IT early on in the process.

This is just a starter, there are many things to consider when transitioning to the cloud, there are huge benefits to be had with many companies that have decided that the benefits and advantages afforded outweigh any concerns that they may have. Working with the right vendor who understands and is open to resolving your concerns is a vital decision point and engaging early on to resolve those issues specific to you and your company is a great place to start.

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