How Egnyte Uses AWS to Create An Innovative Approach to Storage, Collaboration, Security and Compliance

Guest post by Rafi Cohen, Egnyte

The life sciences industry is undergoing major transitions. Pharma, biotech, and medical device companies generate more data than ever and require higher processing power for clinical trials, gene sequencing and more. Many life sciences organizations are transitioning legacy technology stacks to the cloud, which promises the ability to accelerate processes, mobile collaboration, and strong security. To further complicate matters, there is increasing pressure to maintain regulatory compliance.

Egnyte has long offered life sciences organizations a better way to collaborate from a secure, digital space, enabling the ability to transfer infrastructure to the cloud. Yet now Egnyte offers integration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides numerous new features and services that help life sciences organizations get better scale, performance, speed, collaboration, agility and compliance.

The following are key features of the Egnyte and AWS integration that are particularly useful for the life sciences industry:

Empowers Scientific Data

Many life sciences organizations use AWS to run big data and simulations for such things as gene sequencing and clinical trials, which can be hundreds of TBs in size and produce large reports. When Egnyte Storage Sync is integrated with AWS EBS or S3, these tests can be completed quickly, producing results in a fraction of the time it takes using traditional servers. Plus, Egnyte and AWS replaces cumbersome, manual data migration processes with automatic delta-sync between on-premise storage (Egnyte) and a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) on AWS.

Security and Compliance

Egnyte has built-in security by providing complete access control and real-time visibility into all user activity for greater security. Egnyte Protect supports data retention policies and can send alerts for any unusual user behavior. Administrators can remove inactive accounts and monitor files on a granular level.

Plus, Egnyte Protect helps life sciences organizations maintain compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, DPA, GLBA, APA, NZPA, and more. By using machine learning techniques, Egnyte Protect scans data across company repositories, then locates and classifies sensitive information, such as driver’s license data and credit card information. Then, administrators can more easily control access. Plus, it simplifies and accelerates locating personal data collected on any individual, which is particularly helpful with GDPR Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR).

Integration with Apps

Egnyte is compatible with numerous applications, including many used by life sciences organizations, such as TetraScience, ChemAxon, RSpace, Dotmatics, Science Exchange, Benchling, ViQi, DocuSign, Smartsheet, G-Suite, and Microsoft Office 365. Egnyte provides high-level security for all applications we partner with. Egnyte Protect extends the data governance capabilities to applications that are connected to Egnyte.

The biotech company Decibel Therapeutics uses the Tetrascience app to collect data from lab equipment and store such data directly with Egnyte. This enables a host of automation, search, and downstream data integration solutions. With Egnyte Storage Sync, data can be automatically transferred to AWS data repositories that enables compute such as AWS SageMaker. For instance, scanned documents or images from microscopes can automatically be transferred to local computers or the cloud. Egnyte continues to grow its life sciences eco-system continuously in order to integrate new functionality that will accelerate innovation.

Collaborate and Connect Teams

Egnyte with AWS enables both employees and non-employees to collaborate while maintaining a native desktop experience. Files and folders are automatically synced from Amazon to Egnyte, where they can easily and securely be shared.

Egnyte enables life sciences organizations to collaborate effortlessly from a single, secure digital space. Teams get access to lab results, scans, patient data, reports, and other scientific data when using the apps they choose — all while maintaining compliance with industry regulations. It is easy to share a project with an external partner such as a contract research organization (CRO) in a secure way, which helps users enjoy the freedom of the cloud and mobile environments while proving peace of mind to IT. Egnyte’s interface also makes it possible for CRO to upload files that will automatically synchronized into the AWS EBS or S3 bucket.

A New Era of Innovation for Life Sciences Organizations

By digitizing data and processes with Egnyte and AWS, life sciences organizations can accelerate innovation, increase productivity, boost security and maintain compliance. Information is easily accessible, data intensive processing is streamlined, and compliance is simplified. As data and processes will continue to grow and become more complex in this industry, Egnyte and AWS offer an innovative approach that saves time and money.

See how other teams are integrating with AWS using Egnyte.

Questions? E-mail us at AWS@Egnyte.com