Pharmaceutical Cloud Solutions: Transition and Benefits

The transition to digitalization and the movement to the cloud have steadily advanced in the pharmaceutical industry. Many organizations have been held back by outdated digital strategies, a lack of in-house expertise, and concerns about the security risks of cloud migration. However, the long-term savings and operational efficiencies that cloud-based models offer outweigh the short-term costs.

Embracing the Cloud

Recently, pharmaceutical companies are moving into a phase of active cloud adoption, recognizing that this shift is essential for digital transformation. Moving from traditional on-premises software to cloud-based systems, where data is stored on a global network of servers, is becoming more common. Many companies opt for hybrid cloud approaches, combining on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and public cloud solutions.

Pharmaceutical Cloud: Accelerating Drug Development

Pharmaceutical digital transformation and the cloud are intrinsically connected. The ongoing drive for faster time-to-market and scalability has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid rollout of vaccines has set a new standard for speed in drug production, creating pressure for companies to integrate advanced technologies.

Cloud-based models enhance operational efficiency and accelerate drug development by offering better data accessibility and analytics. Today, pharmaceutical companies are adopting hybrid cloud frameworks to relieve IT burden, cut costs, and improve decision-making through data analysis.

Creating a Cloud Strategy

Many companies are implementing cloud-based solutions using AI and predictive analytics to boost efficiency and reduce errors in drug production. Moving data to the cloud allows firms to integrate disparate sources such as manufacturing systems, lab data, and ERP solutions, creating a unified business view for better decision-making.

As data sources grow, so do the opportunities for AI-driven analytics. Cloud solutions facilitate real-time insights and predictive capabilities that minimize equipment downtime and prevent errors before they happen.

Reaping the Benefits of Cloud Solutions

Pharmaceutical companies can achieve significant cost savings by moving to the cloud. On-premise IT setups require significant investment in hardware and ongoing maintenance, which smaller companies often struggle to afford. Cloud-based models eliminate much of this cost, allowing companies to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure.

Cloud solutions also streamline operations by reducing manual processes and enabling automated workflows, ultimately speeding up drug development. This increased efficiency improves reliability in the supply chain, ensuring that products are available when needed.

Moving to the cloud is becoming a critical step for pharmaceutical companies looking to gain a competitive advantage. By utilizing cloud data, companies can make more informed decisions, cut costs, and bring life-saving drugs to market faster.

Securing Pharmaceutical Data with Cloud-Native Solutions

When hackers stole Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine data last year during a cyberattack on Europe's medicines controller, it was just the latest in a long line of cybercrimes against medical organizations.

Efforts to illegally access data in pharmaceutical and other medical organizations increased during COVID-19, but even before the pandemic, gaining access to drug development datasets was high on hackers' wish lists.

In 2020, a study by IBM placed the average cost of a data breach for a pharmaceutical business at $5.1 million, ranking the sector just behind healthcare, energy, and financial industries in terms of experiencing the highest costs.

Most of the breaches in pharma were the result of malicious attacks, and the cost of a pharma breach was nearly double the average cost across all industries, where breaches cost an average of $3.86 million each.

Forbes highlighted vulnerabilities around identity compromise and limited access resulting from hybrid and multi-cloud environments, calling it the "cloud permissions gap."

The increasing reliance of large enterprises on cloud, hybrids, and multi-vendor environments has expanded the potential avenues for a malicious breach. With data usage more crucial than ever, solutions are needed that integrate quickly and efficiently with existing infrastructure to enable rapid innovation without compromising safety or data security.

Big data analytics will improve patient care, but greater data management is needed alongside. Cloud-native transformation across the pharmaceutical sector requires partnerships with specialized organizations to optimize the use of open-source technologies.

As a leader in intelligent edge computing solutions, SUSE is well-positioned to support the use of lightweight Linux, Kubernetes, and storage products for x86 or Arm hardware within the pharma industry.

Scaling Kubernetes solutions means you don't have to choose between speed and security. You can innovate without compromising your data. With SUSE Rancher, you can unify all clusters to ensure consistent operations, workload management, and enterprise-grade security from core to cloud to edge.

SUSE's flexible Linux OS, container management, observability, networking, and storage solutions bring everything you need for a data-driven competitive advantage.

As you democratize data throughout your organization, customize treatments, and run at-home clinical trials, you must deliver and manage solutions reliably and securely in environments with limited computing power or connectivity.

With SUSE, gain the openness and interoperability needed to optimize your supply chain for a digital future, enhance R&D, and increase ROI with reliable and secure technology that helps future-proof your organization.

If you would like to talk to one of our experts or learn more about how SUSE can bring resilience to your organization, please get in touch.