LABORATORY INFORMATICS
Making the case for cloud
ROBERT ROE CONSIDERS THE LATEST CLOUD AND SAAS TECHNOLOGY, AND THE BENEFITS IT CAN PROVIDE TO LABORATORIES WITH TODAY’S WORKFLOWS AND AI INITIATIVES
these software systems on-premise. ‘The cloud provides a lot of benefits
from a cost perspective, reliability perspective and in terms of security, contrary to what some people might believe. People think that because they are putting their data in the cloud, it might be less secure but it is, in fact, more secure and there have been studies which prove this,’ Shrestha added.
LIMS and ELN systems are increasingly deployed in the cloud to provide flexibility, added
security and reduced costs. The advent of cloud-based systems and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms are changing the way that laboratory management software is implemented. For many users cloud and the SaaS model provides a platform that can support today’s workflows, while also offering the scalability needed for customers who are looking to use their data for machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) workflows. It provides a software stack that can help reduce costs and increase productivity in the laboratory. The platform also provides an opportunity to aggregate data and provide context for data, stored today to be used in AI/ML workflows in the future.
10 Scientific Computing World February/March 2020 Thermo Fisher, for example, offers
LIMS, ELN SDMS and instrument connection software across both on-premise and cloud deployments in the form of either standard SaaS or enterprise-grade SaaS platforms. Users can pick which flavour of the technology is right for them and supplement the platform through the additional apps which help to streamline the implementation of key workflows. Ajay Shrestha, manager of technical
operations, Digital Science at Thermo Fisher Scientific, said: ‘We provide software that can either run in the cloud or even on-premise. We also provide that as a hosted solution, for customers that want us to manage their data. Based on my experience in the past five years, I have seen more customers with a desire to move to the cloud as opposed to hosting
Cloud security Today’s cloud systems are primarily hosted by a few key players such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud in the US, and Huawei or Ali Baba Cloud in China. These companies provide the underlying infrastructure, and, in many cases provide much higher levels of security than the private cloud environments. Using companies with specialised cloud security expertise helps to provide a level of assurance that was not always possible with private cloud or in-house cloud systems developed by laboratories in the past. Shrestha attributes this difference
between the level of security provided and the assumed risks, as being primarily an issue of mindset. ‘Anything that you can have your hands around can make
@scwmagazine |
www.scientific-computing.com
erenby/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28
