Discngine advances life sciences research more securely with OCI

As a life sciences software and service company for pharmaceutical, biotech, and cosmetic manufacturers based in Paris, Discngine provides an R&D platform that helps clients discover new drugs more rapidly. Preliminary scientific research for new product development involves managing highly sensitive data and computing platforms to model protein structures and small molecules with crucial security requirements.

To start up and scale new research projects quickly, Discngine  builds cloud native applications with 150 to 200 open source containers using the Linux operating system. However, patching the many compute servers with the latest security features became a huge problem. Maintaining compliance took days or weeks to complete. The tech firm began to look for process and performance optimization opportunities in a multicloud strategy. 

Discngine decided to move its R&D SaaS platform to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) because of OCI’s automated and integrated security services. The company wanted to reduce administrative processes to better manage, monitor, and protect a growing volume of commercially sensitive customer data.

To secure its data and infrastructure, Discngine was eager to use all of the security services that OCI natively provides to help strengthen its deployment process without additional costs, and to reduce human error. Because Oracle Enterprise Database Service features a built-in low-code application development framework, APEX, Discngine could improve security and time to market. In addition, the company realized that it could help secure its applications with Oracle Autonomous Linux with Ksplice, which patches itself to stay ahead of vulnerabilities.

To further help secure data, Discngine wanted to use OCI Vault to manage encryption keys without needing install anything, pay extra costs, or manage keys on external hardware security modules. Also, Oracle Cloud Guard would help the company to meet its customer’s compliance because detectors in Cloud Guard monitor compliance, database backups, certificates, and firewall security lists.

By adopting OCI’s suite of services, Discngine was able to shorten deployment time from 5 to 7 days to just 1.5 hours. The self-patching, autonomous Linux operating system allowed the IT team to focus on more strategic activities, such as development and data modeling, and less on administration.

OCI's open architecture, which includes an integration of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Identity and Access Management with Microsoft Azure, gives Discngine flexibility because developers and quality assurance teams can easily connect to Azure and AWS to choose which features from each cloud are best-suited for each project. Discngine customers gained better access to tooling and data modeling in only a few clicks to speed drug development and testing.

Finally, by using the embedded, out-of-the box security services throughout OCI, available without additional costs, Discngine was able increase its security compliance and quickly prove to customers that its security posture was acceptable. Without the native security services, the company would not have been able to afford the price of each separate solution plus the associated project costs required to show compliance to auditors. Instead, it achieved ISO 27001:2013 certification within 18 months, thanks to its work with OCI.