Migrating your data to the cloud provides scalability, cost effective data backup and archiving, and stronger security than traditional data centers. Plus, it establishes governance around data, meets GxP compliance requirements, and maintains a continuously validated state of your infrastructure and platform.
The short version
- Cloud data migration unlocks scalability, lower total cost of ownership, and security that on-prem data centers struggle to match.
- For life sciences, success depends on a documented migration plan, clean source data, and a continuously compliant, GxP-validated state.
- The hard part isn't moving the bytes — it's preserving data integrity, audit trails, and governance throughout the journey.
This process should begin with cleaning up your data and avoiding the “garbage in, garbage out” syndrome. This is especially important if you are transferring data that is in various formats or is coming from multiple sources. As you identify databases, applications, and storage options, it is imperative that you have a data migration plan.
Watch the full length on-demand webinar- How to Maximize Your Gxp Use of the Public Cloud!
Common Challenges
We know that life sciences companies have enormous amounts of data. Common challenges among regulated companies wanting to migrate their data to the cloud include:
- Lack of data governance know-how for GxP compliance
- Unable to maintain a continuously compliant state of their infrastructure
- Siloed data stored on-prem prohibits efficient collaboration
Things to Consider
While application and data migration happen separately, they do occur in tandem. Moving regulated data from multiple sources to the public cloud enables you to take advantage of data lakes and advanced analytics to drive insights and make better business decisions.
Two themes deserve attention up front. First, the platform doesn't validate itself: moving GxP workloads means re-establishing your validated state, which is where a risk-based Computer Software Assurance (CSA) approach and disciplined validation lifecycle management keep you compliant without slowing the move. Second, the cloud introduces shared responsibility, so a clear-eyed view of third-party risk and cybersecurity belongs in the plan, not as an afterthought.
A practical sequence for regulated cloud migration
- Assess and clean. Inventory databases, applications, and storage; profile data quality; remediate before you move.
- Plan and map. Build a documented migration plan that defines scope, priority, and the target validated state.
- Migrate by priority. Use a flexible adoption model to move regulated workloads in waves rather than all at once.
- Validate and govern. Re-establish the validated state, wire up audit trails and IT controls, and confirm data integrity.
- Monitor continuously. Keep the platform in a continuously compliant state with automated monitoring and verification.
USDM's Cloud Assurance Benefits
USDM’s Cloud Assurance enables continuous compliance of your data in the cloud in addition to audit trails, IT controls, automatic cloud monitoring, and data integrity.
An accelerated cloud journey means that you can:
- Benefit from a structured journey map and assessment to identify strategic business initiatives made possible by the cloud and emerging technologies
- Fast-track your innovation with a pre-packaged solution built on life sciences best practice
- Use a flexible cloud adoption model to migrate regulated workloads based on priority
- Scale as your business needs evolve
The goal isn't just to move data to the cloud — it's to land it in a continuously validated, governed, and auditable state from day one.
What Business Outcomes Can I Expect?
In addition to significant cost savings compared to on-prem data storage, maintenance, and security, data migration results in:
- GxP compliant data storage and data integrity
- GxP compliant backup, archival and retrieval
- Improved transparency
- Automated monitoring and verification
- Built-in security and compliance
You will appreciate the overall reduction in total cost of ownership.
FAQ: Migrating Regulated Data to the Cloud
Why should life sciences companies migrate data to the cloud?
Cloud data migration provides scalability, cost-effective backup and archiving, and stronger security than traditional data centers. It also establishes governance around data, helps meet GxP compliance requirements, and supports a continuously validated state of your infrastructure and platform.
What is the first step in a data migration?
Start by cleaning up your data to avoid the “garbage in, garbage out” problem — especially when data spans multiple formats or sources. As you identify databases, applications, and storage options, build a documented data migration plan before you move anything.
How do you keep migrated GxP data compliant?
You re-establish the validated state on the new platform and maintain it with audit trails, IT controls, automatic cloud monitoring, and data integrity checks. USDM’s Cloud Assurance is designed to keep your data in a continuously compliant state in the cloud.
What business outcomes can I expect?
Beyond cost savings versus on-prem storage, maintenance, and security, expect GxP-compliant storage and retrieval, improved transparency, automated monitoring and verification, built-in security and compliance, and a lower total cost of ownership.
What are the most common migration challenges?
The recurring obstacles are a lack of data governance know-how for GxP compliance, difficulty maintaining a continuously compliant state, and siloed on-prem data that blocks efficient collaboration.
Learn More
We invite you to watch our webinar How to Maximize Your GxP Use of the Public Cloud and read our white paper Regulated GxP Workloads in the Public Cloud to learn more about USDM’s public cloud solution.
Ready to plan your move? Contact us to schedule a call with our compliance and technology subject matter experts and map a cloud migration that lands your regulated data in a governed, validated state.