Bioverativ Protects Vital R&D Data with Rubrik and Microsoft Azure

Overview

Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Bioverativ is a biotechnology company dedicated to transforming the lives of people with hemophilia, cold agglutinin disease, and other rare blood disorders. Bioverativ’s therapies were the first major advancements in the treatment of hemophilia A and B in nearly two decades. Today, they are the leading extended half-life therapies. Bioverativ has locations in the United States and Tokyo, and is owned by Sanofi, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Cate Fagan, CIO, leads the company’s 50-person IT team. “At Bioverativ, IT is not viewed as a back-office function. Our team is involved in all strategic business decisions, ranging from mergers and acquisitions to new product allocations,” Fagan said. “Our motto is: ‘science matters because patients matter.’ Data is critical to everything that we do. One of our main IT objectives is the confidential protection of our patients’ data. Rubrik and Microsoft Azure have allowed us to achieve this goal and adhere to the long-term retention requirements dictated by the biopharmaceutical industry.”

Solutions

Cloud mobility with Rubrik and Microsoft Azure

“We also chose Rubrik over other solutions because it fit perfectly with our cloud-first mentality,” said Bob Dyer, Associate Director of Infrastructure and Operations. “We didn’t want to go down the path of building a tape library and dealing with off-site storage. There are extensive data retention requirements due to the nature of our industry, and Rubrik was attuned to our need for a robust, future-forward solution that reduced data management complexity.”

“We saw Rubrik as a cloud-first, patients-matter initiative,” said Fagan. “We already had a strong relationship with Microsoft and use many of their products, including SharePoint and Office 365.” “We are now archiving to Microsoft Azure with Rubrik. The integration was a breeze,” said Dyer. “We are archiving to Microsoft Azure based on the SLA policies we set in minutes. Once the policies were set, Rubrik automated the rest, so we no longer have to think about it.”

Seamless archival and data security with Rubrik and Microsoft Azure

“One of the main reasons we were looking to implement a cloud strategy is our long-term retention requirements,” said Dyer. “We need to protect R&D data for the life of the drug, which could be 30-40 years in some cases. However, that retention policy does not apply to our corporate data. There are many different types of data subject to different SLAs, which is extremely complicated to manage with a traditional backup solution. Rubrik’s automated SLA policy engine makes it simple to ensure that our data protection aligns with our business objectives and compliance requirements.”

“With Microsoft Azure’s focus on working with the healthcare industry, it means that we can deploy HIPAA and HITRUST-ready solutions to meet the regulatory compliance needs of our business,” said Dyer.

“Rubrik’s software spans across on-prem to Microsoft Azure, seamlessly archiving older data to Azure via SLA policies,” said Dyer. “Rubrik provides a single platform to protect our virtual machines, database services, applications, and research data while ensuring all our critical application data is easily discoverable and quickly recoverable.”

“Security is paramount for protecting patient data. We feel confident our data is protected because Rubrik and Microsoft Azure provide end-to-end encryption in-flight and at-rest,” added Dyer.