Penetrating the Cloud

IVT's Conference on Cloud and Virtualization (Dublin, 13-14th November 2012) was everything I'd hoped it would be. After two year of conference sessions simply peering into the Cloud to understand what it us, or sticking a head in to the Cloud to see what the risks are, it was good to spend two days looking through the Cloud to see how these risks can be managed and to review some case studies.

It served to endorse our opinion that while generalist Cloud providers are either not interested in the needs of the Life Sciences industry, or are still struggling to understand Life Sciences requirements, what some people have called the 'Pharma Cloud' (or 'Life Sciences' Cloud, and what we define as Compliant Cloud Computing) is here. As we report in one of our latest Perspectives opinion pieces, while specialist providers are relatively few, Infrastructure, Platform and Software as a Service can now be provisioned in a manner that meets the expectations of most regulators.

While it would have been good for an organization such as ISPE to provide such clarity, well done to IVT for organizing events in the US and Europe and giving people a chance to unpack such issues. To be fair to ISPE, many GAMP sessions have looked at Cloud at country specific meetings and conferences, but the topic really does need a couple of days to get your head around.

What also emerged was the ability to select the right Cloud model, including On-Premise options and discussions with a number of delegates confirmed the attractiveness of the Compliant Cloud Anywhere solution (IaaS, installed On-Premise, but owned and operated by a specialist Cloud Services provider).

At the end of the IVT event delegates (many of whom are from QA or IT Quality) went home with a much better understanding of what Cloud and Virtualization is and what the risks are. Perhaps more importantly, what also emerged were some good examples of how to mitigate the risks and the outline of a strategy to move further into the Cloud without risking regulatory compliance.

As we'll explore in our webcast "State of the Art in Compliant Cloud Computing", relatively few Life Sciences companies have a real Cloud Strategy that also addresses regulatory compliance and this is quickly becoming a necessity for organizations looking the take advantage of the business benefits that Cloud and Virtualization offers.

As clarity emerges we expect to see things move significantly further into the Cloud in the next 12 months - "watch this space" as they say!