Description of the Company
The organization under focus is a pharmaceutical company that produces medications and develops new drugs. Any entity in this industry looking to succeed in competition has a Research and Development department. Within it, the company’s employees are tasked with testing new drugs, which would later be used in healthcare settings and possibly even sold to the general populace. However, before any medication is put on shelves, it has to undergo multiple test stages. Digital technology facilitates the storage of records and access to databases, but with each passing year, using physical hard drives becomes less efficient. Although not every person is aware of the drug creation process, the fact that it takes a long time for the pharmaceutical industry to adopt new technological solutions is common knowledge (Al-Shura et al., 2018). Nevertheless, breakthroughs in cloud computing have made it possible for pharma companies to streamline data collection and sharing.
Explanation of the Breakthrough
In simple terms, cloud computing is the Internet-based availability of computer resources. Any database, program, or file has to be stored in a specific location. The traditional solution is to store all data on a local server that can only be accessed from pre-defined places. If the server is compromised, the data can be lost, which forces companies to spend resources on backup measures. Cloud computing resolves this issue by storing all data on multiple cloud servers that can be accessed from any device that can connect to the Internet.
Summaries of Opinions
Despite the evident benefits, cloud computing is a controversial subject. Its proponents point to convenience, which allows people and organizations to save time, resources, and costs, which traditional data storage would not allow (Al-Shura et al., 2018). A popular opposing viewpoint is that pharmaceutical companies have too sensitive data to be stored on cloud platforms. First, this is a new technology and it is susceptible to error, which may lead to data leakage and loss of records. Second, cloud providers maintain cloud servers, which makes companies using this technology dependent on them (Singh et al., 2021). This is not a risk that many conservative managers would approve of.
Implementation
There are two primary ways cloud technology can benefit pharmaceutical companies. First, cloud computing can be implemented in the machine learning life cycle. As more drug research relies on artificial intelligence, the demand for storage and processing speed grows as well (Spjuth et al., 2021). Shifting to cloud servers will accelerate the machine learning process, as it will not be constrained by the limitations of local servers. Another area where cloud computing can be implemented is data sharing (Singh et al., 2021). As companies have numerous subsidiaries, each of them has to wait until the information about drug tests is uploaded on a physical hard drive. Cloud technology enables instantaneous access to data databases, thus making physical drives redundant.
Addendum/Annotated Bibliography
Over the course of this report, three resources have been referenced. The first is the article “Critical success factors for adopting cloud computing in the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies” by Al-Shura, Zabadi, Abughazaleh, and Alhadi (2018). It provided information on the general tendencies of adoption of cloud technology in the pharmaceutical industry. The second source is “The machine learning life cycle and the cloud: Implications for drug discovery” by Spjuth, Frid, and Hellander (2021). It explored the usefulness of cloud computing for AI-driven machine learning used in the discovery of new drugs. The third source is “Cloud computing in solving problems of COVID-19 pandemic” by Singh, Haleem, Javaid, Kataria, and Singha (2021). It focused on the benefits cloud computing provided for data sharing during the pandemic. Further investigation should focus on the possibilities that the combination of machine learning and cloud computing can create for the future of drug development and drug testing.
References
Al-Shura, M. S., Zabadi, A. M., Abughazaleh, M., & Alhadi, M. A. (2018). Critical success factors for adopting cloud computing in pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. Management and Economics Review, 3(2), 123-137. Web.
Singh, R. P., Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Kataria, R., & Singhal, S. (2021). Cloud computing in solving problems of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Industrial Integration and Management, 6(02), 209-219. Web.
Spjuth, O., Frid, J., & Hellander, A. (2021). The machine learning life cycle and the cloud: Implications for drug discovery. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 16(9), 1071-1079. Web.