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Authored by Ross Chernick and Keith Kwasigroch
Overview of the business challenge
A global specialty pharmaceuticals client was facing a critical business challenge - the need to modernize their commercial technology landscape and enhance healthcare professional engagement. In the fast-paced world of healthcare, the speed at which research provides results directly impacts patient care and treatment outcomes. Therefore, the availability and security of research data are of utmost importance. To achieve more rapid research outcomes, the client recognized the potential of leveraging cloud features and technologies. That's when PwC, in collaboration with AWS, stepped in to address this challenge head-on.
The PwC and AWS technical approach
PwC and AWS approached the challenge with a clear focus on achieving increased resilience, scalability, and cost reduction. The first step was to establish a cloud adoption factory, a structured approach to support the transformation and migration of on-premises workloads to AWS. This involved implementing high availability architecture and data protection measures to enable the uninterrupted availability and security of critical research data.
To develop a scalable and secure data architecture, PwC leveraged leading practices and the capabilities of AWS. The technical approach included using several AWS Cloud Native services to enhance the speed of data analysis. Additionally, burst compute designs were implemented for high-performance computing workloads, reducing job run times and capital spend. Legacy on-prem data assets were migrated to the cloud data platform, providing a seamless transition from the on-premises data center to the AWS cloud.
The implementation breakdown
1. Building foundational components and scalable architecture
To lay the groundwork for a resilient and scalable infrastructure, PwC defined the foundational components required to build out a well-architected and secure AWS environment, with an emphasis on high availability. This involved carefully assessing the client's existing infrastructure and identifying areas for improvement. With a deep understanding of the client's business needs, PwC designed an automatically scalable architecture that could handle burst demands, making sure that research outcomes were not hindered by infrastructure limitations.
2. Developing data migration and cloud transformation pathways
PwC developed a holistic data migration strategy and executed the cloud migration process. This involved a meticulous analysis of critical business services and application interrelationships using PwC's proprietary solutions, Terrain Insights, a PwC product, and Cloud Advancer. By leveraging these solutions, PwC accelerated the process of creating a viable application migration sequence, enabling confirming minimal disruption to the client's operations.
To establish a solid foundation in the cloud, PwC assessed and enhanced the client's foundational cloud hosting platform on AWS. This involved enhancing the platform to meet the client's specific requirements, providing a seamless and effective migration process. Additionally, PwC focused on establishing foundational DevOps capabilities and processes, enabling the client to leverage the benefits of automation and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. Two separate workflows were defined and automated a) Infrastructure deployment b) Application deployment.
3. Cloud native services and data platform
To enhance the speed of data analysis, PwC leveraged AWS (e.g., auto-scalable ECS clusters on Fargate, AWS Batch, FSX Lustre, Amazon Simple Storage Service, CloudWatch monitoring, Amazon Aurora / RDS, Application Load Balancing, Simple Notification Service, and Amazon MQ). These services provided the client with resilient cloud solutions, enabling faster and more effective data analysis. PwC also developed burst compute designs specifically tailored for high-performance computing workloads. By reducing job run times and capital spend, these designs allowed the client to achieve research outcomes more rapidly and cost-effectively.
As part of the cloud transformation, PwC migrated relevant legacy on-prem data assets to the cloud data platform. This confirmed that critical research data was securely stored and easily accessible in the cloud. By migrating these assets, the client gained the benefits of scalability, flexibility, and improved data management capabilities offered by the cloud data platform.
4. Automation and operational efficiency
Automation played a crucial role in streamlining the migration process and enabling operational efficiency. PwC established automation to collect, store, and analyze the client's application portfolio. This automation not only saved time and effort but also provided valuable insights into the client's application landscape, enabling informed decision-making throughout the migration process.
To reduce business disruption, PwC adopted the 7R disposition approach, migrating multiple applications in parallel. This approach confirmed that the client's operations continued smoothly during the migration process, with minimal impact on healthcare professional engagement.
To achieve native cloud resilience and scalability, PwC implemented an automated CI/CD pipeline using an infrastructure-as-code software tool. This allowed for seamless deployment of cloud services, network configuration, and applications. Additionally, PwC automated data pipelines, monitoring, logging, security scanning, and cost optimization, further enhancing operational efficiency and reducing manual effort.
In conclusion
The collaboration between PwC and our client, powered by AWS, resulted in the successful modernization of the commercial technology landscape and enhanced healthcare professional engagement. By adopting AWS and leveraging leading practices, the client achieved increased resilience, scalability, and cost reduction.
The new operating model, built on a foundation of high availability architecture and data protection, transformed the client's infrastructure. This transformation enabled the client to provide improved patient care and treatment outcomes by accelerating research outcomes. The outcomes achieved included a significant reduction in database costs, an always-current view of critical business services, and accelerated deployment of cloud services.
Through this transformation, the client gained a competitive edge in the industry and positioned themselves for future growth and success. By embracing cloud technologies and leveraging the experience of PwC and AWS, our client achieved their goals of modernizing their commercial technology landscape, enhancing healthcare professional engagement, and ultimately improving patient care.
Explore how PwC and AWS are accelerating breakthrough outcomes.
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