In my colleague’s last “cloud fact or fiction” post, he confirmed that clinical trial, clinical data, and safety systems can be implemented faster in the cloud than on-site because a vendor’s data centers, servers, and templates are ready for use by companies with strict regulatory and compliance guidelines. Today, I’ll discuss implementation costs.
Claim #2: Clinical trial software can be implemented less expensively in the cloud than on-site.
Fact or fiction? Fact.
By hosting a clinical or pharmacovigilance application in the cloud, sponsors and CROs eliminate the need to purchase and maintain IT infrastructure, as well as hire/use internal resources for ongoing maintenance. Additionally, the option of “shared hosting,” in which multiple systems live on the same virtualized server, can lower hosting costs even further.
Significant savings can also be realized through implementing pre-configured systems, frequently referred to as “accelerators,” eliminating the need to pay extra for commonly-requested enhancements. Some hosted accelerators even offer “on-demand” licensing, similar to the concept of leasing, which provides the biggest cost-savings of all for smaller organizations.
To sum up, here are the primary sources of cost reduction associated with cloud implementations:
- Pre-qualified vendors, hardware, and template environments
- Reduced need for internal resources
- Shared hosting option
- Hosted, pre-configured accelerator option
- On-demand licensing option
In our next “cloud fact or fiction” post, we’ll discuss the ongoing costs companies may be expected to cover over time as they use their clinical and safety applications. To read past posts in this series, click here.
Stay tuned.
