Consider the Advantages of Guardrails in the Cloud

Cloud integration has quite deservedly become the go-to digital transformation strategy across industries, particularly for businesses in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. By integrating Cloud technology into your IT approach, your organization can access unprecedented flexibility while taking advantage of real-time collaboration tools. What’s more, Cloud solutions deliver sustained value compared to on-premises solutions, which require resources (both time and money) to upgrade and maintain the associated hardware, since companies can easily scale Cloud platforms in tandem with accelerating growth.

At the same time, leaders must carefully balance the flexibility and adaptability of Cloud technology with the need for robust security and access controls. With effective guardrails administered appropriately, emerging biopharma companies can optimize research and development within boundaries that shield valuable data and ensure regulatory compliance. Explore these advantages of adding the right guardrails to your biotech or pharmaceutical organization’s digital landscape to inform your planning process.

Prevent unintended security risks

One of the most appealing aspects of the Cloud is the ability to leverage its incredible ecosystem of knowledge, tools, and solutions within your own platform. Having effective guardrails in place allows your team to quickly install and benefit from these tools, including brand-new improvements and implementations, without inadvertently creating a security risk. 

Researchers can work freely in the digital setting while the guardrail monitors activity and alerts users in the event of a security risk. As a result, the organization can avoid these common issues that lead to data breaches:

• Maintaining open access to completed projects that should have privileges in place
• Disabling firewalls or Secure Shell systems to access remote systems
• Using sensitive data for testing and development purposes
• Collaborating on sensitive data without proper access controls

Honor the shared responsibility model

Biopharma companies tend to appreciate the autonomous, self-service approach of Cloud platforms, as the dynamic infrastructure offers nearly endless experimentation. At the same time, most security issues in the Cloud result from user errors such as misconfiguration. The implementation of guardrails creates a stopgap so that even with the shortest production schedules, researchers won’t accidentally expose the organization to potential threats. Guardrails also help your company comply with your Cloud service provider’s shared responsibility policy, which outlines and defines the security responsibilities of both organizations.

Establish and maintain best practices for data integrity

Adolescent biopharma companies often experience such accelerated growth that they can’t keep up with the need to create and follow organizational best practices for data management. By putting guardrails in place, you also create standardized controls that ensure predictable, consistent operation. Available tools abound, including access and identity management permissions, security groupings, network policies, and automatic enforcement of these standards as they apply to critical Cloud data. 

A solid information security and management strategy becomes even more critical as your company expands. Entrepreneurs who want to prepare for future acquisitions should be ready to show evidence of a culture that prizes data integrity.

According to IBM, the cost of a single Cloud-based security breach in the United States averaged nearly $4 million in 2020. Guardrails provide a solution that truly serves as a golden means, preserving critical Cloud components such as accessibility and collaboration without sacrificing your organization’s valuable intellectual property, creating compliance issues and compromising research objectives.