The exponential increase in computing capacity, often referred to by technologists as Moore’s Law, has had a disruptive and transformative effect on virtually every major industry. The pharmaceutical industry is no exception.
The explosion of computational power has had unexpected implications for productivity, had profound consequences for the pharmaceutical industry, and led to the development of the exciting field known today as biotechnology.
Moore’s law refers to doubling the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit roughly every two years. While some claim that Moore’s Law is no longer applicable, the exponential growth in available computing power for virtually every industry is undeniable.
To many technologists, cloud computing solutions represent the next huge step forward in biotechnology and many other fields. It allows pharmaceutical companies to leverage increased computing power for safer data housing, more efficient scale-up or IT infrastructure, and more accessible data sharing. However, cloud computing isn’t without its drawbacks; it often requires the use of vast amounts of power.
To understand why cloud computing for the pharmaceutical industry uses so much power, let’s explore the growth of the field of biotechnology and how cloud computing will become the next big step forward for the industry.
Understanding the Power of Biotechnology
Dramatic increases in computing power have led to a cascade of advancements and discoveries in biology. Most notably, computational systems have allowed biologists to sequence the human genome. The Human Genome Project (HGP) took nearly 13 years and $3 billion to complete and represented one of the most dramatic steps forward in the field.
The mapping of the entire human genome has given researchers the tools to uncover the genetic influences and origins of various ailments, leading to the possibility of new treatments and preventative measures. The genomics revolution, and the related field of proteomics, the study of proteins, have produced a colossal amount of data that must be stored, organized, and analyzed.
Our information systems in 2003 were not as connected as they are today. Ironically, the level of technology that enabled the completion of the HGP represents a challenge for analyzing and applying those findings today. According to Dickson, technologists must update much of the IT infrastructure that houses this data, so pharma cloud computing systems are vital.
Pharma cloud computing systems provide biotech firms the firepower needed to complete complex computations, analyze genomic data and find genetic causes of some diseases. They provide various benefits when working with big data.
The Law of Accelerating Returns
Developed by futurist Ray Kurzweil, the law of accelerating returns refers to “the tendency for advances to feed on themselves, increasing the rate of further advance, and pushing well past what one might sensibly project by linear extrapolation of current progress.” In simpler terms, discovery A leads to discovery AB and AC, and each of those spurs at least two different discoveries.
Scientific discoveries don’t move in a straight line but fan out in multiple and sometimes unexpected directions. The biotechnology field is one example of the law of accelerating returns. It has impacted everything from the development of vaccines and antibiotics to advancements in the food manufacturing process to the gene sequencing revolution.
The Benefits of Cloud Computing Systems
First and foremost, cloud computing systems are higher performing than other IT systems. They can examine, organize, and analyze large datasets quicker and more efficiently than other systems, allowing researchers to sort the signal from the noise in massive amounts of data and develop scientific hypotheses that they can test.
Another benefit of cloud computing systems is offering enhanced data security, a priority for biologists. Security is essential for data in biotechnology because data can accumulate quickly and must be secured efficiently. Sensitive data about expensive, lucrative medical products such as COVID-19 vaccines can represent intellectual property worth millions or even billions of dollars.
Pharma cloud computing systems and web-based databases allow IT managers, to implement multi-factor authentication for all workers who access the data, limiting possible vulnerabilities and security concerns. They also enable the deployment of robust firewalls that limit data breaches and access by malicious actors such as hackers. IT managers must protect data through enterprise-level encryption and cross-referenced through regular data snapshots when using cloud computing systems.
Finally, cloud computing systems are compatible with sophisticated Intrusion Protection Systems (IPSs) that can detect anomalous log-ins or other suspicious user actions that conflict with expected behaviors stored in a dedicated SIEM platform. Some institutions have even halted cloud computing initiatives and subcontracted them out to other companies to ensure data security.
Scalability is another significant benefit of cloud computing systems. It refers to the capacity of these systems to quickly and dramatically expand; to store and analyze rapidly growing quantities of data.
Cloud computing systems allow this to be accomplished cost-effectively through strategic resource clustering strategies such as Hadoop clusters. Data is written into an external cloud storage system and accessed by adding or removing nodes.
The Power Requirements for Cloud Computing Systems
Much of the power requirements for cloud computing systems come from the need to cool large clusters of IT hardware systems. Technologists utilize various techniques, including the strategic spacing of different hardware pieces that allow for enhanced air circulation, liquid cooling systems, and powerful fan and ventilation systems to keep the systems from overheating.
Ventilation systems often require a vast amount of power to function correctly, and failures in cooling systems are an existential threat to cloud storage infrastructure. That is why redundancy is essential and represents an additional demand for power in cloud computing.
Backup systems are necessary, as is a comprehensive policy of checks and balances. IT managers must institute plans that prevent the failure of part or all of a cloud computing system.
Different types of redundancies include dual power feeds, a backup network stack, high-efficiency computer nodes, and a failsafe storage cluster that can accommodate disk failures or hardware malfunctions. Despite these challenges, the advantages of cloud computing are so significant that many different industries are taking advantage of these systems.
To Sum Up
It’s clear that cloud computing systems are dependent on high amounts of energy. The use of such power levels by these systems requires extensive planning to ensure proper cooling, ventilation, and maintenance of cloud computing infrastructure.
The power of the cloud is setting the stage for some of the most important breakthroughs in biotechnology, which have the potential to save millions of lives in the future.
