:'''e.g. NASDAQ Market Replay application uses Amazon's S3 cloud for data storage but the application part is not running in cloud presently. It has plans to develop future applications in Amazon's EC2.'''
==Cloud computing applications in pharmaceutical industries==
* Historically, most large pharmaceutical firms have run fully integrated vertical business models, doing all they can in-house and choosing to selectively outsource where appropriate
* Firms now seek to reduce the time and cost through sharing an integrated platform which is cheaper, less time consuming, and more supportive of a networked business model
* Pharma companies exploring cloud computing have reported positive experiences through
:* Easier implementation
:* More computational transparency
:* A clear-cut IP policy
:* Scalable invoicing
===Pfizer===
* Protein engineers and informaticians at Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center faced the challenging task of antibody docking that presented enormous computational roadblocks.
* Each antibody model requires the respectable models of the protein’s three-dimensional structure to be generated on Rosetta++ platform which carries out refinement of antibody docking.
* Refinement involves small local perturbations around the binding site followed by evaluation with Rosetta’s energy function – an iterative process using 200-nodes cluster that requires a massive amount of computing.
* An array of Rosetta workers are spun up on Amazon’s EC2. The S3 stores inputs and outputs, SimpleDB tracks job meta-data, and the Simple Queue Service glues it all together with message passing and the entire process is completed overnight which previously took months.
* Consequently, the research staff is focusing more on results without pushing their projects on back-shelf.
[http://www.bio-itworld.com/issues/2009/may-jun/antibody-docking-EC2.html Source: bio-itworld]
===Eli Lilly===
* Eli Lilly is using cloud computing services to support scientists with on-demand processing power and storage.
* The firm uses Amazon Web Services and other cloud services to provide high-performance computing, as needed, to hundreds of its scientists.
* Eli Lilly foresees the possibility of using cloud services from a half dozen different vendors and need for an “orchestration layer” that sits between Eli Lilly and the various cloud services.
* It would comprise algorithms that determine the best cloud service for a particular job based on lowest cost, highest performance, or other requirement. Such an approach would make it possible for Eli Lilly and other users to write to a single API rather than many, while optimizing service usage.
* The firm is also exploring the potential to use cloud computing for external collaboration between Eli Lilly and outside researchers.
[http://www.undertheradarblog.com/blog/eli-lilly-the-future-of-pharmaceutical-research-and-cloud-computing/ Source: undertheradarblog]
===Johnson and Johnson===
* Johnson and Johnson is seeking to complement its high performance grid architecture with cloud computing, mainly in the area of drug discovery modeling applications, according to Rick Franckowiak, director for systems engineering at the Pharmaceutical Research & Development IT organization at Johnson & Johnson.
* Require enhanced computing and storage capabilities and address spike-type processing demand.
[http://www.fiercebiotechit.com/story/j-j-pharma-r-d-looks-skyward/2009-06-12 Source:fiercebiotechit]
===Indigo BioSystems Inc.===
* Indigo BioSystems Inc., a privately held company offering data management and automated analysis solutions for life science researchers with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry.
* It has deployed IBM's Compute on Demand cloud services to provide clients with a highly secure, scalable and compliant environment for data exchange.
* IBM’s cloud services has been able to meet the clients’ requirements for a scalable and globally accessible platform for data exchange alongwith the security and regulatory compliances of the pharmaceutical industry.
[http://www.prdomain.com/companies/I/IBM/newsreleases/200921167686.htm Source: prdomain]
==Companies using cloud computing==