Skip to main content
2022

Johnson & Johnson Delivers Compliance at Scale and Lowers Cost Using Amazon EBS

Learn how Johnson & Johnson used Amazon EBS to improve compliance and cost efficiency.

Key Results

$1M+ savings

in annual storage costs

100,000+

rarely accessed snapshots moved to archival storage tier

Petabytes

of data archived

Non-disruptive

archival process

Met backup

compliance and legal regulations

Overview

Johnson & Johnson (J&J), one of the world’s leading healthcare companies with more than 140,000 employees and contractors worldwide, is focused on having a comprehensive data backup strategy to ensure compliance, disaster recovery readiness, and business continuity. As J&J experienced exponential business growth, it needed a simple, low-cost solution to archive data of workers’ virtual desktops to meet compliance and legal regulations, with requirements for a retention period of more than 20 years. Needing a cloud-based solution to archive large amounts of data in a cost-efficient manner, J&J turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) to optimize the current storage cost structure for sustainable data backup without any disruption to the current processes.

A doctor in a white lab coat working on a laptop at a desk with a stethoscope nearby, representing healthcare professionals using technology.

Opportunity | Democratizing Data Access for Over 45,000 Workers Using AWS

J&J has been leading the healthcare industry in public cloud adoption for almost a decade and has been using Amazon WorkSpaces for seven years. Amazon WorkSpaces helps J&J to quickly deploy secure, reliable, and scalable persistent virtual desktops. As one of the main use cases, Amazon WorkSpaces provides fast and secure access for over 45,000 J&J non-employees and employees who are required to access J&J resources in a secure manner at any location from any device of their choice. Amazon WorkSpaces leverages core AWS services such as compute from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and storage volumes from Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS). The joint compute and storage solution helps Johnson & Johnson to scale up as required for new hires and growth.

As a leader in the healthcare industry, J&J is subject to compliance laws and regulations. To assure compliance, J&J uses Amazon EBS Snapshots to store copies of associates’ virtual desktops. Some snapshots have an indefinite storage life and are infrequently accessed. For several years, J&J was able to absorb the costs of keeping snapshot data in an active storage tier. As J&J experienced exponential growth in business and the volume of data, it became very costly for the company to retain petabytes of data in snapshot storage, especially infrequently accessed data.

J&J wanted a cost-effective solution that would allow it to retain the cold data for a long period of time for compliance and regulations without alteration or deletion of the data. Moreover, J&J wanted an “AWS native” solution that would integrate easily into its existing infrastructure, instead of introducing the risk of a third-party solution which would require vetting and a long period of time to validate and deploy.

The red handwritten logo of Johnson & Johnson on a transparent background.
Amazon EBS Snapshots Archive not only meets our technical and compliance requirements, but also ensures that our cost for storage of snapshots is sustainable for years to come.

Gaurav Kapoor

Senior Manager, Johnson & Johnson

Outcome | Archiving Petabytes of Data to Achieve Annual Savings of Over $1M

J&J achieved its goal of migrating 100,000 snapshots in less than 2 months without any disruption to its processes. The economic impact of Johnson & Johnson’s snapshot migration to EBS Snapshots Archive has resulted in a projected cost savings of over $1M annually.

J&J continues to utilize Amazon EBS Snapshots and Snapshots Archive to archive additional snapshots as contractors leave and the organization needs to maintain that data for compliance. Currently, J&J is using more than five petabytes of archival storage to meet compliance requirements while reducing costs.

About Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a leading healthcare company with global operations. J&J engages in the research and development, manufacture and sale of products in the Consumer, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices healthcare segments.

Get Started

Organizations of all sizes across all industries are transforming their businesses and delivering on their missions every day using AWS. Contact our experts and start your own AWS journey today.
Contact Sales