Amgen moves bulk of its cloud infrastructure onto Amazon Web services

Biotech giant Amgen is moving the vast majority of its cloud infrastructure to Amazon Web Services to better leverage the vast amounts of clinical data it has available — and to apply machine learning and AI to that data for the discovery of new treatments, according to an AWS statement issued today.

WHY IT MATTERS

This is another example of the recent moves being made by hospitals, biotech and pharma to find cloud environments that can support more robust tech infrastructures for research and development.

THE BIGGER TREND

A new study by analyst firm IDC says the pace of digital transformation is becoming exponential and a period of multiplied innovation and disruption over the next five years is coming, wherein connectivity, AI and revamped infrastructure will be the focus.

That’s why more and more vendors are looking to the use of complex multi-cloud environments. Recently, ClearData, IBM and PureStorage have positioned themselves for the use of a mix of public and private secure clouds for their data.

Another sign of the posturing toward innovation via the cloud: Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled its new FHIR Server for Azure to advance interoperability and machine learning – as part of an ongoing alliance with Amazon, IBM, Google, Oracle and Salesforce to remove interoperability barriers.

In Amgen’s case, the move will accelerate innovation and drive cost efficiencies, as well, said AWS officials.

Amgen has already been working with AWS since 2012 to develop core applications and new high-performance computing workloads, AWS said. Currently, Amgen already uses AWS’s full range of services, including computing, storage, database, analytics, and machine learning services, to support development and automate processes in the cloud.

ON THE RECORD

Mike Zahigian, chief information officer at Amgen said the company sees its expanded relationship with AWS as “an important enabler” to help advance its overall information systems strategy.

“The choice to go in this direction was influenced in no small part by technologists in information systems rapidly adopting AWS technologies over the last few years to accelerate innovation,” Zahigian said. “We see increased use of AWS facilitating our ability to scale our business at a faster pace and deliver innovative applications that contribute to our mission to serve patients.” 

Diana Manos is a Washington, D.C.-area freelance writer specializing in heatlhcare, wellness and technology. 
Twitter: @Diana_Manos
Email the writer: [email protected]

 

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