Why We Went Cloud with our Laboratory Information Framework

When we began building LIMSABC, we wanted to create a solution that wasn’t just current today but would be a platform for future growth.

A platform that could evolve as laboratory IT needs and demands changed. When we looked at the pace of change over the last 10 years, we realized the trajectory going forward would require laboratory information systems to refresh their underlying technology. Tomorrow’s laboratories require the ability to work with far more data than they have in the past and need the ability to integrate and work with data from an ever increasing number of data sources; electronic medical records, clearinghouses, billing systems, genetic and genomic interpretation software, automation tools and instrumentation. With LIMSABC we built a modern, flexible cloud solution on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python) stack.

Reasons we went cloud with our LIS:

• Infrastructure on demand. Building, maintaining and securing your own data center is a costly undertaking; we felt that most clients would be better served if we used truly world class web service providers such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft. In addition, these large vendors have HIPAA business associate agreements and processes to ensure your data is handled appropriately.
• Fully redundant data systems. Your data is backed up in the cloud across redundant servers so it is extremely unlikely that you would lose any data. The web service providers provide a number of services that would easily allow you to replicate any internal processes.
• World class uptime and accessibility to your information. When was the last time your gmail wasn’t available? Or you couldn’t shop on Amazon?
• Extreme scalability of users, samples and peak system load. The upper limit of bandwidth available from in-house servers is a fraction of the bandwidth available from cloud providers. The cloud gives you the processing power you need when you need it; you are freed from having to build your own data center for peak demand.
• Access from any device, anywhere. With a full, cloud based system all you need is a web browser to access your data.
• Reduction of your in-house IT burden through a fully hosted and supported system. LIMSABC as Software as a Service means no need to host software locally for your LIS system. All you need is a modern web browser such as Chrome or Safari.