Today’s biotech companies are facing new pressures to grow faster and scale up their operations. They must also meet the digital transformation needs of healthcare organizations and reach a broader audience with their products.
As one of the fastest growing industries – the US biotechnology market was estimated at USD $389.1 million last year, up from USD $286.1 million in 2020 – and also one of the most highly regulated, biotech companies must ensure they are compliant, secure, and able to work efficiently.
An effective IT infrastructure will help biotech businesses operate more efficiently and securely, while also streamlining data access and analysis, to achieve greater visibility and compliance.
Why is scalable IT infrastructure important?
Scalable IT infrastructure is critical for biotech companies to grow, release products to market quickly and ensure compliance. It allows them to invest in the right technology, like cloud computing, to help them work and communicate faster, or automate business processes. It also helps them develop the right technologies and processes needed for large-scale production.
Without this infrastructure in place, they will lose valuable time and money trying to get up to speed on new technologies. Biotech companies need to be ready with ways to scale their environments so they can take advantage of new investment and innovation opportunities.
Streamline business processes
Scalable IT infrastructure will streamline your business processes by providing reliable, high-capacity server and network storage space, as well as the ability to transfer data more quickly.
Business process automation is a key to increasing operational efficiency. Investing in automation tools will help companies streamline business processes by reducing the amount of time spent manually processing repetitive tasks. With the onset of artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and machine learning (ML), technology is enabling businesses to drive processes at lightning speed and cut costs.
Increased cybersecurity
The rapid rate of technological advancement in the world today has created an increasingly complex IT infrastructure for businesses. As a result, cybersecurity threats have become more prevalent, and many biotech organizations are struggling to keep their IT systems secure, with an estimated 10% of global pharma manufacturers at high risk of cyber-attacks.
However, a scalable IT infrastructure can help businesses eliminate these threats by providing them with the resources they need to protect their data. By scaling out existing IT systems and adding new ones as necessary, businesses can ensure their cyber defenses are up to date and ready to handle any attacks.
This includes both hardware and software solutions which can be easily updated, upgraded and expanded as needed. It also means considering cloud-based options with easy access and quick onboarding times so IT resources are always available when they’re needed most.
Avoid downtime and data loss
A key aspect of any successful business is having reliable infrastructure. When a system goes down, it can have a serious impact on productivity — and the longer the downtime, the worse the impact. In addition, data loss is often another costly problem to deal with.
Scalable IT solutions offer businesses a way to easily scale their IT infrastructure by adding more servers, storage and networking resources as they need them. They also provide businesses with a way to easily recover from outages and other disruptions through automated backup systems and disaster recovery plans.
End-to-end visibility for compliance and oversight
Biotech companies must adhere to strict regulatory compliance, such as the FDA, to ensure data privacy and information security controls, as well as avoid serious legal or financial consequences. Deloitte’s 2021 life sciences regulatory outlook urges biotech companies to focus on their compliance activities through transformative technologies like automation and predictive analytics.
Scalable infrastructure such as automation and cloud processes will assist biotech companies with validation processes and safeguarding clear audit trails, ensuring visibility throughout every input, process and action.
Additional data controls
As technology advances, biotech businesses are at a higher risk of more sophisticated cyber-attacks because they generate huge amounts of data on a daily basis
With comprehensive security features, scalable infrastructure can protect your company’s assets, information and data, as well as ensure data is accessible and easily managed.
A central cloud solution will also enhance data management and maintenance, making it easier to securely share data with clients and co-workers.
Real-time reporting
Efficiency is crucial within the biotech industry due to strict compliance regulations and specific markets. Any error can quickly escalate into a serious problem, which is why real-time reporting is so crucial. Operational reporting increases quality control and efficiency by allowing companies to respond quickly to issues and opportunities, as well as easily pinpoint problems.
Scalable infrastructure like a cloud solution allows for real-time reporting by providing instant access to anything you need: data from your applications, logs from your servers and other vital information. If you’re using a traditional data center, you may find yourself waiting days or even weeks for this information to be gathered and analyzed. This can lead to costly delays in decision making and actionable insights. In contrast, a cloud environment provides instant access so you don’t have to wait for results or confirm they are accurate.
Find the right infrastructure for your company’s needs
A scalable IT infrastructure is crucial for biotech companies to grow and ensure compliance. It allows them to invest in the right technology, like high-performance computing, that can help them work and communicate faster, or automate business processes. It also helps them develop the right technologies and processes needed for large-scale production. Without this infrastructure in place, they will lose valuable time and money trying to get up to speed on new technologies.
The IT experts at BCS365 specialize in optimizing and managing the infrastructure, digital transformations and IT environments of biotech and healthcare companies. Talk to them today about your specific needs and improve your business’s efficiency, cybersecurity and data control.