The past two years have forced a change in pharma’s perspective toward technology. Before, this was a field reluctant to the adoption of new technologies. Nowadays, the disruption brought by professionals’ digitalization and more, is showcasing the benefits of inserting technology into the workforce. Cloud computing solutions are one of them.
Aside from not requiring a significant amount of investment, cloud computing comes with safety aligned with the opportunity for creating a common workspace. What benefits can come to pharma companies from this? Let’s have a look.
The growth of the cloud computing solutions
No doubt about it: cloud computing solutions are part of the trends here to stay. There is more than one model of cloud computing that corporations are adopting. The four main ones are as follows:
- Public Clouds: Provided by third-party providers, they are available for people who want to use or purchase them. One can measure usage by bandwidth, CPU cycles, and storage.
- Private Clouds: As the name suggests, this is a model restricted only to one company for private usage. This service model can help many corporations regarding communication, and the virtualization of infrastructures and applications.
- Hybrid Clouds: This is a fusion of the two previous models. On one hand, you can preserve private information, on the other, there’s a wider choice of applications in public clouds.
- Community Clouds: Lastly we have a model fit for partnerships among companies of a common sector. It allows them to share resources, while at the same time providing on-demand access on many levels. It’s a highly beneficial model of cloud computing that provides other application usages.
In 2010, this market was estimated at only $24.65 billion. Nowadays? It surpasses the 150$ billion mark. During the last decade, the evolution of the possibilities around this technology gave way to a myriad of possibilities. Here are some relevant stats regarding the actual panorama of cloud computing:
- Other countries will fall behind the US in adopting cloud technologies by 2022 (Gartner);
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, 50% of people expected the use of the cloud to be higher than planned (Flexera);
- The adoption of Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) back in 2017 was only 32%. In 2021 it grew to around 56% (Ricks Cloud);
- In 2020 83% of companies’ workload was cloud-stored (Forbes);
- In 2020, the data stored in computers located in Europe corresponded to 46% (Business Wire);
- There is a shared expectation that spending on IT infrastructures will reach $55.7 billion in 2022. Thus, affecting the cloud computing market in demand for elements such as servers or company storage solutions.
How can this work for pharma?
Cloud computing has a wide variety of advantages for pharmaceutical companies in more than one workforce area. By adopting one cloud solution, many companies gain access to enterprise solutions without great investment.
Not only that but there’s the great advantage of companies streamlining their workloads. Not to mention the fact that could solutions can address compliance, privacy, and security issues that pharma companies face.
There’s more than one area that can benefit from this solution such as:
#1: Clinical trials and clinical research
This is one of the areas that will benefit from the properties of many cloud-based solutions. The cloud can help in streamlining the processes around patient recruiting for various sites.
Not only that, but it allows the safety of data as well as its availability in real-time. All that’s required are devices with reliable access to the internet. Therefore, clinical trial managers can even manage individual access to resources.
One element that will benefit many researchers is the prevalence of wearable technology and smartphone apps. In a way, these elements allow an easy collection of patient data from anywhere. In remote clinical trial research, this comes off as extremely practical.
Clinical trials take a long time due to the huge amount of data generated. Even in a modern setting, there are risks of data misrepresentation and the privacy of patients. Nonetheless, cloud computing helps to keep these elements in one centralized space for the whole team to keep up with.
#2: Drug Discovery
Another lengthy process in pharma is related to drug research and development. Through the presence of a cloud solution in this investigation, the team involved will have easy and real-time access to valuable data.
Elements such as analytics, images, and stats can be properly organized. This can also be very practical when it comes to organizing resources and guiding initial surveys.
Combine cloud computing with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) and the advantages are remarkable. This fusion will help many pharmaceutical companies to save costs and speed up the results of drug research.
#3: Seamless collaboration
Many pharma organizations often collaborate with partners such as biotech and research firms. What’s more, is that these companies are located in several spots all over the world. The pandemic made clear that globalization is upon pharma, and cloud computing is here to help.
There is great potential for integrating and standardizing these information flows with cloud computing to create a truly efficient, streamlined collaboration platform. Introducing such a solution as a channel for cooperation creates a common channel for partners only.
It’s also relevant to point out that pharma companies can have greater control over their scalability potential. Therefore, for pharma, the cloud enables a coherent, safe and quick option for cooperation.
#4: Marketing Actions
Yes, even for marketing actions, the cloud has a relevant role to play in helping pharma marketers. One of the most relevant options is enhancing and personalizing the engagement with patients and stakeholders. Cloud solutions can help them tap into potential markets while reducing costs at the same time.
With a cloud solution, their job will be more efficient wherever the people in a pharma marketing team are. The team will be able to access relevant data in real time and have a common communication channel among themselves. Cloud computing is also a great ally regarding the maximization of cost efficiency and optimization of digital media.
Conclusions
For the pharmaceutical and life science industries, cloud computing solutions represent a revolutionary option. This technology has come a long way in the past decade.
Without a doubt in this sector, there will be an increase of companies willing to integrate cloud options into their operations. More than just a storage option for valuable data, this element will be vital for work optimization, the creation of common communication channels, and the safety of a company’s data. With this growth come great predictions regarding future possibilities.
Cloud Computing Solutions allow you to share vital information with potential partners. Did you know that you can even share informative video content with your partnerships and stakeholders?
Discover more about PubExplainer and MedExplainer, BlueNovius’ main customized video marketing solutions for pharma brands.
Book your meeting and provide innovative content of value in your interactions.
Hand-picked related content:
What is Machine Learning and How Can it Benefit Pharma Reps?