Pharmaceuticals and Technology: Supporting Innovation and Scale

Karin Ratchinsky Posted On March 25, 2020

Digital transformation initiatives, complex data models, sophisticated analytics and compute capabilities, cloud first strategies, legacy applications migration, cybersecurity threats and, more recently, business continuity planning—these are just some of the challenges and opportunities that pharmaceutical and BioTech firms must deal with in order to innovate and improve population health. These and other business imperatives are driving fast, disruptive change in organizations’ IT operations.

A foundational component necessary to enable global pharmaceutical teams is an enterprise-wide network that is flexible, scales seamlessly with evolving project demands, is secure, and delivers on performance. “Adaptive networking” is the collection of software-defined functions that together deliver high-performance, flexible, and secure connectivity that is key to achieving pharmaceutical’s top objectives.

Adaptive networking components include software defined WAN (SD-WAN); hybrid networks that merge internet virtual private network (VPN) and private VPNs; flexible bandwidth, particularly bandwidth on demand; dynamic WAN ports into data centers and clouds; network functions virtualization (NFV); and Data Access on Demand (DAoD) capabilities. Leading pharmaceutical organizations are increasingly integrating these solutions into their IT strategies to meet their accelerating IT needs, and are becoming more nimble and cost effective.

A recent survey by market research firm Ovum, sponsored by CenturyLink, highlighted the following improvements noted by pharmaceutical organizations that have leveraged adaptive networking technologies:

37% saw cost savings in utilizing hybrid networking
44% saw improved resilience and security using SD-WAN
41% saw better performance with flexible bandwidth

Adaptive networking technologies are ideally suited to the global and project phased approach central to pharmaceutical workflows, particularly those that require network and/or compute resources on an on-demand or time bound basis, including:

Clinical trial roll-out, electronic data capture, data management and data analysis
Supply chain management and product lifecycle management tools
Enterprise management software and workflow systems; LIMS, CTMS, CDMS, and SDMS
Computational platforms
Business and predictive analytics tools

Learn how CenturyLink’s flexible, scalable and secure network can enhance digital transformation and business innovation for your organization.

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This blog is provided for informational purposes only and may require additional research and substantiation by the end user. In addition, the information is provided “as is” without any warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied. Use of this information is at the end user’s own risk. CenturyLink does not warrant that the information will meet the end user’s requirements or that the implementation or usage of this information will result in the desired outcome of the end user.

Author

Karin Ratchinsky

Karin Ratchinsky leads vertical and digital strategy for the Global Accounts Division at Lumen. She is passionate about the role technology plays in business transformation and has spent the last fourteen years working with customers on game changing tech-forward solutions. Karin received her MBA in international business from Trinity College, University of Dublin and her undergraduate in Business from University of Victoria, she was a member of the collegiate soccer team at both institutions. In her spare time she is chasing her two young children, skiing the beautiful Colorado mountains or reading a good book.