Case Study

Overview

A global pharmaceutical company, grappling with the complexities of managing decades of legacy backup tapes, has engaged Tape Ark for a transformative multiyear data management project. The partnership aims to address the growing challenges associated with legacy tape storage; ensure compliance with strict industry regulations; and unlock the hidden potential of archival data through AI and analytics.

Tape Ark’s innovative tape-to-cloud migration solution will not only help the company maintain regulatory compliance and reduce costs, but also position them to leverage cutting-edge technologies, drive operational excellence and data-driven innovation. The added bonus of this project is that ten off-site physical tape storage accounts – throughout the United States – will be closed to consolidate all of the storage in a globally accessible cloud account.

 

Challenges

The pharmaceutical company faces several challenges common to organizations managing vast legacy data archives:

  1. Legacy Backup Complexity:
    The company’s archives span decades, stored on obsolete tape formats that require expensive, specialized equipment for retrieval. This hinders timely access to critical data and increases the risk of media degradation.
  2. Escalating Off-site Storage Costs:
    Rising costs for physical off-site storage facilities, coupled with retrieval fees, create an unsustainable financial burden.
  3. Regulatory Compliance Pressures:
    Pharmaceutical companies are bound by stringent data retention regulations, requiring secure and accessible long-term storage to ensure regulatory audits and patient safety standards.
  4. Data Underutilization:
    Legacy backups were stored as static archives, inaccessible for real-time analysis or advanced tools like AI, which could generate insights valuable to R&D and operational decision-making.

 

Solution: Tape Ark’s Data Liberation Approach

Tape Ark developed and will execute a tailored solution to address these challenges:

1. Mass Tape Migration to the Cloud:

  • Transfer the company’s entire legacy tape archive to a secure, cloud-based storage environment.
  • Ensure data integrity during migration through comprehensive quality checks and encryption.

2. Retention Policy Automation:

  • Build automated systems for regulatory compliance, managing data retention policies and secure access protocols.
  • Provide auditable logs to streamline reporting during compliance reviews.

3. Cost Optimization:

  • Eliminate the need for costly offsite storage facilities, with a projected 60% cost reduction over the contract duration.
  • Reduce retrieval fees and minimize operational overhead for data management.

4. AI-Ready Cloud Infrastructure:

  • Design the migrated data structure to enable seamless integration with cloud-based AI and advanced analytics tools, unlocking the full potential of the company’s historical dataset.

 

Benefits of the Cloud-Based Solution

1. Significant Cost Savings:

  • The company will achieve a substantial reduction in storage and management costs, allowing budget reallocation to core R&D and innovation initiatives.

2. Enhanced Compliance:

  • The automated retention system will ensure full adherence to data retention policies, reducing the risk of regulatory fines and audits.

3. Improved Accessibility:

  • Legacy data, once siloed and difficult to retrieve, will become instantly accessible through cloud interfaces.
  • Streamlined workflows and improved decision-making efficiency across the organization.

4. AI-Powered Insights:

  • Migrated data will become accessible to AI tools, enabling advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and machine learning applications.
  • Examples include:
    • Accelerating Drug Discovery: By analyzing historical trial data and identifying patterns, the company will reduce time-to-market for new treatments.
    • Operational Optimization: Leveraging AI to forecast production demands, minimize supply chain disruptions, and improve efficiency.
    • Regulatory Trends: Using AI-driven analytics to identify patterns in compliance data, ensuring proactive adherence to evolving regulation.

5. Scalability for the Future:

  • The cloud infrastructure provides unlimited scalability to accommodate growing data volumes, ensuring the company remains future-proof as it continues to innovate and expand.

 

Expected Results

  • 60% Cost Savings: A dramatic reduction in annual storage and retrieval costs.
  • Regulatory Assurance: Automated compliance management streamlined regulatory reporting and reduced risks.
  • Operational Agility: Immediate access to data transformed workflows, enabling faster decision-making and improved collaboration.
  • Data-Driven Innovation: Cloud-enabled AI tools turns static archives into valuable assets, supporting breakthroughs in research, operations, and compliance.

 

Tape Ark will help turn a cost center into a strategic asset. By moving legacy backups to the cloud, costs will be reduced, compliance streamlined and it will open up discovery opportunities for new ways to leverage data for innovation through the ability to apply AI to historical data!

 

Generative AI was used to create this image.