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AWS and SAP: How and Why Companies
Run Regulated Workloads in the Cloud
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functioning of businesses. Migrating to the cloud
hands responsibility for ensuring the applications
are available at all times to a specialist with global
infrastructure. The result is super up time that is
architected into the solution.
This performance is underpinned by AWS' multiple
regions and multiple Availability Zones within each
region. Regions are isolated from each other to ensure
compliance with regulatory requirements. The zones
are also isolated from each other to prevent contagion
in the event of a failure in one part of the network.
Yet, the zones are also connected in a way that allows
one zone to automatically step in if another has a
problem, ensuring uninterrupted uptime.
Access to global infrastructure comes into play in
disaster recover y, too. AWS designed its disaster
recover y system to enable companies to quickly
recover critical IT systems and data without having
to maintain a physical backup location. In the case
of regulated workloads, AWS is combining this
Availability Zone-enabled model with SAP HANA
System Replication.
The approach has found favor with drug developers.
"We just use AWS regions settings to do disaster
recovery," Marcello Damiani, Chief Digital Officer
at Moderna Therapeutics, said. "it's been flexible
enough to allow us to build in a very fast fashion."
Moderna has also had a positive experience with
the security features provided by AWS and SAP.
"There is always discussion about security but for us
it's a no-brainer," Damiani said. "When you look at
the number of security people AWS has compared to
what we could afford to have it's an easy decision."
HOW AWS AND SAP ARE SIMPLIFYING
MOVING TO THE CLOUD
Amgen and Moderna exemplify how different types
of drug developers can run SAP in the cloud.
Moderna was founded in 2010 with a cloud-first
strategy. Back then, the biotech only needed to run
unregulated workloads. Now, Moderna has a clinical-
phase pipeline and manufacturing facility. These are
regulated operations traditionally seen as requiring
on-premise infrastructure. Yet, Moderna management
stuck with its cloud-first strategy after concluding
the obstacles to running regulated workloads on
AWS are more imagined than real.
That conclusion has been validated by Moderna's
experience in establishing a Good Manufacturing
Practice (GMP) environment in AWS. Moderna is
now up and running with GMP workloads using
SAP on the AWS cloud. Despite its position at the
cutting edge of the transition to GMP workloads in
the cloud, Moderna found the setup process quick
and easy.
