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The life sciences are ripe with opportunity for companies willing to think through near and long-term goals for data management, and IT cloud solution is key as an enabler.

FREMONT, CA: Many life sciences companies today face increasing consumer, portfolio, regulatory, and operating hurdles daily as they carry on their search for innovative solutions. To create competitive differentiation and market dominance, the life sciences firms must meet the diverse challenges while supporting tomorrow's innovations. Cloud solutions technology offers immediate returns in improving operational performance and reducing costs. Multiple approaches to the cloud will be key to satisfy life science industry demands. Know more here.

With information as a core asset to the industry, life sciences companies are finding that not all data is equal and that the willingness to relinquish control of data varies, depending on where in the organization the information resides. Ongoing innovation in the IT cloud solution space has recognized these concerns and develops product offerings for each need. The opportunity for IT cloud solutions is driven by the demand to reduce costs while maintaining better, organization-wide operational performance. Simultaneously, the shift to IT cloud solutions is also supported by the potential for long term benefits for the organization.

While external, public IT cloud solutions have the potential to reduce IT infrastructure costs by 90 percent and allow access to computational resources on-demand, this means requires that company data reside outside of the organization. For efforts critical to the organization, the risk of uncontrolled access is typically too great to accept. In these situations, the better-controlled options are likely to remain the norm for the foreseeable future. Data within the industry can be heavily siloed by design, and the management of data often carries regulatory compliance that also bears financial risks. The way that data is managed in the industry requires focusing on the industry segments as key differentiators to how much control organizations are willing to relinquish in pursuit of cost savings and improved operational effectiveness. 

The life science industry is clearly in the midst of transformational change, and it is reasonable to expect that IT will be a core element in the change process. IT cloud solutions have arrived at a time when they can be leveraged into both short term solutions and long term strategic planning. While implementing IT clouds can be easy, fast, and cheap, it will be essential for management and IT administration to reflect on the larger picture to ensure that their efforts are consistent with long-term goals.